it. 


Sertioa 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 
OF  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


THE  SOPHISTRIES  OF 
CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 


BY 


EDWARD  C.  FARNS WORTH 


PORTLAND,  MAINE 

Smith  &  Sale,  Printers 

1909 


COPYRIGHT    1909 

BY 

EDWARD  C.  FARNSWORTH 


M 


PREFACE 

ATERIALISM,  that  old  enemy  so 
often  worsted  by  Idealism,  has  mar- 
shalled his  armies  for  perhaps  a  final 
stand.  "  Progress  !  "  is  his  war-cry,  and  his 
pride  is  in  the  visible,  the  palpable  works  of 
his  hands.  Yonder  stand  the  embattled  hosts 
of  Idealism  whose  rallying-shout  like  that 
of  the  other  is  *' Progress!"  She  too  has 
achieved,  but  not  the  outward,  the  splendour 
of  cities,  the  wealth  of  nations,  the  commerce 
of  the  navigated  sea.  Men  and  women  are 
her  showing,  eternal  temples  of  the  living 
God  when  the  desert  claims  the  city,  and  the 
nations  are  humbled  to  a  name,  a  memory, 
and  the  sea  itself  has  vanished,  sunken  from 
its  central  deeps. 

But  who  is  the  champion  of  Idealism,  the 
Lord's  anointed,  empowered  to  overthrow 
the  arrogant  Goliath  of  Materialism?  Some 
are  with  confidence  asserting  that  Christian 
Science  is  that  champion ;  notwithstanding 
which,  it  should  be  remembered  that   when 


PREFACE 

many  of  the  goodly  sons  of  Jesse  had  passed 
before  Samuel ;  the  prophet,  at  first  deceived, 
was  lead  to  ask  if  there  were  not  others. 

Of  Christian  Science  it  must  be  said  that, 
aside  from  its  claim  to  heal  disease,  it  little 
appeals  to  the  great  mass  of  the  irreligious. 
As  a  religion  its  sway  is  chiefly  over  people 
once  affiliated  with  the  various  sects  of  Protes- 
tantism, from  the  most  conservative  even  to 
those  known  as  the  most  liberal.  The  progres- 
sive thinker  will  hail  any  evolution  of  thought 
and  its  reaction  on  antequating  conceptions  of 
Truth ;  but  he  laments  chimera-chasing  in 
all  things,  religion  included.  Investigating 
Christian  Science,  he  discovers  in  its  teach- 
ing that  which  allures  the  uncritical  and  the 
ungrounded  of  widely  differing  religious  views. 
For  the  Trinitarian,  Christian  Science  has 
First  —  Omnipresent  Mind — the  one  God. 
Second — Life,  Truth,  Love,  the  Christ  prin- 
ciple forever  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father. 
Third  —  Divine  Science  the  Holy  Comforter. 
To  the  Unitarian  is  explained  that  Christ  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  are  the  attributes  of  Unity. 
To  the  Universalist  a  novel  view  of  his  belief 


VI 


PREFACE 

in  universal  salvation  much  appeals.  For  the 
Quaker,  Christian  Science  promises  to  every 
soul  a  direct  revelation  of  Divine  Wisdom 
through  the  real  man  the  mental  image  of 
God.  The  Shaker  will  find  in  Christian 
Science  the  Motherhood  of  God  and  the  incul- 
cation of  a  celibacy  whose  object  is  the 
gradual  disappearance  of  the  earth-inhabiting 
man.  Even  to  the  Romanist,  something  is 
offered,  to  wit,  plenary  revelation  and  the 
authority  of  a  visible  and  infallible  head. 

Because  of  conditions  which  pastors,  teachers 
and  physicians  lament,  it  behooves  the  philo- 
sophical thinker  to  summon  all  his  powers  of 
mind  to  the  detection  and  exposure  of  those 
insidious  errors  which  hide  beneath  the  fair 
exterior  of  Christian  Science. 

E.  c.  F. 


vn 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 
OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

OF 

CHRISTIAN      SCIENCE 

I 

IN  the  preface  to  "  Science  and  Health"  Mary 
Baker  Eddy  states  that  the  first  school  of 
Christian  Science  Mind-healing  was  begun 
by  the  author  in  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  about 
the  year  1867,  with  only  one  student. 

Like  Mohammed,  she  began  with  one  disciple, 
and,  like  the  religion  of  Islam,  her  teachings 
have  spread  with  a  rapidity  mightily  contrast- 
ing with  the  growth  of  Christianity  prior  to  the 
conversion  of  Constantine.  Mrs.  Eddy  says 
of  her  system  that  in  1883  a  million  people  ac- 
knowledged and  attested  its  blessings.  Numer- 
ical and  financial  prosperity  marks  the  forty- 
second  year  of  Christian  Science.  The  Mother 
Church  of  Boston,  with  an  enrolled  membership 
of  over  fifty  thousand,  has  erected,  at  a  cost  of 
two  million  dollars,  a  temple  worthy  of  any 
cathedral  town  of  Europe. 

Christian  Science  has  lived  serenely  despite 
the  crass  and  ignorant  criticism  of  those  who, 
in  justice,  should  have  mastered  the  funda- 
mentals of  a  belief  they  would  demolish  ;  and 
when,  from  misapprehension,  men  of  note  and 
attainment  have  written  and  spoken  adversely, 

3 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

it  has  remained  untroubled,  knowing  that  error 
is  its  own  refutation.  Another  class  of  oppo- 
nents, in  which  is  found  a  well-known  American 
humorist,  meet  the  enemy  with  what  seems  their 
only  edged  weapon,  ridicule.  Another  class 
hurl  such  ponderous  missiles  as  "  Thus  saith 
the  Lord  !  "  which,  together  with  a  fusillade  of 
Bible  texts,  somehow  flies  the  mark.  Still 
another  class  of  would-be  critics  assail  Christian 
Science  with  the  shafts  of  materialism,  little 
knowing  that  their  puny  arrows  fall  harmless 
on  the  strongholds  of  the  mighty,  giants,  like 
Plato,  in  the  domain  of  thought. 

To  the  multitude,  those  who  demand  for 
Deity  a  definable  form  and  a  fixed  habitation, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  conception  of  God  as  Infinite 
Principle  is  a  denial  of  His  personality.  When 
in  1875  she  informed  her  readers  that  "  God  is 
Principle,  not  person,"  many  saw  not  that  in  the 
sentence,  person  meant  an  anthropomorphic 
God. 

That  the  multitude  fail  to  grasp  the  meaning 
of  Christian  Science  is  no  wonder  when  we 
consider  its  inception,  a  birth  of  idealism,  a 
religio-philosophical  system  appearing  amidst 
an  unphilosophical  people  of  materialistic 
tendencies.  This  failure  to  grasp  is,  indeed,  no 
wonder,  for,  among  trained  reasoners  in  the 
realms  of  the  abstract,  differences  of  opinion 
arise  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of  beliefs  held 
in  common  ;  thus  Nirvana  is  to  some  Indian 
thinkers  but  absorption,  annihilation  of  self  in 

4 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

the  Divine  Essence  ;  to  others  it  is  unlimited 
enlarging  of  individuality  ;  therefore  Buddha, 
in  the  moment  of  enlightenment,  exclaimed, 
"  The  Universe  grows  I  !  " 

To  the  student  of  philosophies,  especially 
those  of  the  idealistic  succession  from  Plato  to 
the  Neo-Platonists,  and  from  Descartes  to  Spin- 
oza and  Berkeley,  and  from  these  to  Schopen- 
hauer, the  revivor  of  Indian  metaphysics,  much 
in  "Science  and  Health"  has  a  familiar  look. 
Philosophy,  since  its  origin  among  the  Ionian 
Greeks,  and  the  authors  of  the  Upanishads,  has 
covered  pretty  much  the  whole  sphere  of  spec- 
ulative thought  ;  hence  the  present  impossibil- 
ity of  devising  a  system  not  encroaching  upon 
the  domain  of  another. 

Before  the  days  of  Socrates,  the  Eleatics, 
postulating  one  pure  and  unconditioned  Being, 
regarded  the  phenomenal  world  as  nullity. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  Spinoza, 
conceiving  of  a  single  self-sustaining  Substance, 
comprehending  all  Reality,  called  it  God,  and 
also  Infinite,  but  feared  further  to  define,  deem- 
ing that  definition  materializes  and  minimizes 
God.  Mrs.  Eddy  thus  defines  the  Infinite  of 
Spinoza,  '*  God  is  Immortal  Mind,  Life,  Truth, 
Love."  Reality  and  illusion  are  thus  defined, 
**  The  universe  is  filled  with  spiritual  ideas  which 
God  evolves,  and  they  are  obedient  to  the  Mind 
which  makes  them.  Mortal  mind  transforms 
the  Spiritual  into  the  material."  Mortal  mind 
is  thus  defined,  "  Nothing  claiming  to  be  some- 

5 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

thing  ;  Error  creating  other  error  ;  the  belief 
that  sensation  is  in  matter  ;  the  belief  in  sick- 
ness, sin,  death."  Spiritual  identity  is  thus 
asserted,  "The  Divine  Mind  maintains  all  indi- 
vidualities as  distinct  and  eternal  from  a  blade 
of  grass  to  a  star."  Of  Mankind  she  says,  "  Man 
is  the  infinite  idea  of  Infinite  Spirit.  Man  is 
the  manifest  reflection  of  God.  Perfect  and 
Immortal  Mind.  He  is  the  likeness  of  God." 
In  support  of  this  last  is  quoted  the  declaration 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  "And  God  said, 
Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  like- 
ness." 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "The  fundamental  proposi- 
tions of  Christian  Science  are  summarized  in 
the  four  following  to  me,  self-evident  propo- 
sitions :  1.  God  is  All.  2.  God  is  Good.  God 
is  Mind.  3.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is 
matter.  4.  Life,  Good,  God,  omnipresent,  deny 
death,  evil,  sin,  disease  —  Disease,  sin,  evil, 
death,  deny  omnipresent  God,  Good,  Life." 

Socrates  said  that  through  logic  we  discover 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  a  proposition  ;  so  from 
the  arsenal  of  logic  the  present  writer  has 
drawn  his  chief  weapons.  Perhaps  their  calibre 
and  range  will  warrant  his  belief  in  them.  He 
disclaims  any  prejudice,  any  mere  antagonism. 
He  will  accept  truth  from  church,  temple,  or 
pagoda,  in  fact,  from  all  sources  whatsoever. 
Guided  by  the  conviction  that  he  who  criticises 
another's  conception  of  truth  should  be  candid 
lest  he  obscure  his  own  conception,  the  present 

6 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

writer  thinks  not  to  offend  the  followers  of  one 
thus  admonishing  them,  "Whoever  shrinks 
from  or  opposes  an  impartial  investigation  of 
his  belief,  betrays  palpable  lack  of  faith." 

II 

In  Christian  Science,  man  is  reflection  of 
God.  If  so  he  be,  then  something  is  that  holds 
and  gives  permanence  to  the  reflection.  To 
illustrate  :  physical  light  passes  through  the 
glass  to  the  layer  of  quicksilver  which  arrests 
and  turns  back  the  sun's  rays.  Spiritual  light, 
like  physical  light,  requires  for  its  reflection 
something  on  which  to  shine.  Evidently  it  is 
not  the  mortal,  material  body,  for  Christian 
Science  relegates  the  physical  to  the  realm  of 
mere  appearance.  For  reflection  some  sub- 
stance is  necessary,  and,  as  God  is  All,  that 
substance  must  be  God  himself.  Man  is  there- 
fore reflection  of  God  on  God.  So  we  have  on 
the  one  hand  Immortal  Mind,  Life,  Truth,  Love  ; 
on  the  other  hand  a  pure  reflection  of  these, 
upheld  and  sustained  by  God.  Whence  then  the 
origin  of  mortal  mind  ?  Whence  the  falsities 
of  mortal  mind,  to  wit,  sin,  sickness,  death? 

To  make  apparent  the  enigma,  let  the  sun, 
and  that  which  holds  its  reflection,  be  repre- 
sentative of  God  ;  and  let  man  be  the  light  of 
the  sun.  If  clouds  darken  the  sun  the  rays  are 
absorbed  and  lost.  If  impurities  defile  the 
glass,  or  the  quicksilver,  again  they  are  absorbed 

7 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

and  lost.  But  Christian  Science  rightly  teaches 
that  no  cloud  can  arise  before  God's  all-seeing 
eye  ;  nor  can  impurity  tarnish  His  substance  on 
which  man  is  reflected  ;  neither  can  His  light, 
which  is  man,  be  less  pure  than  Himself.  There- 
fore is  emphasized  the  query,  Why  and  whence 
the  beliefs  of  mortal  mind  ?  Why  does  mortal 
mind  imagine  a  material  body  and  all  infirmities 
of  the  flesh  arisen  between  man  and  his  Maker  ? 
Mrs.  Eddy  ignores  the  question,  and  yet  into 
this  unbridgable  chasm  many  monistic  philoso- 
phies have  fallen. 

Our  oracle  says,  "  The  origin  of  evil  is  the 
problem  of  the  ages.  If  God  created  only 
the  good  whence  comes  the  evil  ?  Christian 
Science  replies  ;  Evil  never  did  exist  as  an 
entity  ;  it  is  but  a  false  belief."  How  simple 
the  solution  !  Why  did  it  escape  the  great 
thinkers  of  the  past  ?  To  the  student  of  phi- 
losophy the  answer  is  obvious.  Those  thinkers 
would  have  rejected  a  solution  which  makes  the 
origin  of  false  belief  the  problem  of  the  ages. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  learned  somewhat  from  the 
dilemma  of  those  who  find  in  the  Bible  texts 
both  the  pro  and  con  of  their  cherished  beliefs; 
therefore  the  two  different  accounts  of  Creation 
found  in  Genesis  are,  to  her,  a  wordy  warfare 
between  Truth  and  error.  So,  in  Isaiah,  cunning 
error,  simulatmg  the  authority  of  God,  speaks 
through  the  prophet,  "  I  form  the  light  and 
create  darkness  :  I  make  peace  and  create  evil  : 
I  the  Lord  do  all  these  things." 

8 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

"Science  and  Health"  avers  that  "animal 
magnetism,  or  hypnotism,  is  the  specific  term 
for  error  or  mortal  mind  ;  this  magnetism  is 
either  ignorant  or  malicious."  In  the  next 
paragraph  one  reads,  "  In  reality  there  is  no 
mortal  mind,  and  consequently  no  transference 
of  mortal  thought  and  will  power."  Presently 
the  reader  is  told  that  "the  author  of  this  book 
has  been  unjustly  persecuted  and  belied  by 
wolves  in  sheep's  clothing."  That  both  she  and 
Mr.  Eddy  suffered  much  from  these  evils  there 
is  ample  evidence,  and  this  notwithstanding 
her  own  dictum,  "  Evil  is  not  power,  its  so- 
called  despotism  is  but  a  phase  of  nothing- 
ness." 

Regardless  of  logic,  Mrs.  Eddy  defines  mortal 
mind  as  "  Nothing  claiming  to  be  something  ; 
error  (nothing)  creating  other  error  ;  the  belief 
in  sickness,  sin,  death."  It  is  indisputable  that 
the  act  of  claiming  demands  a  claimer  as  much 
as  the  act  of  thought  requires  a  thinker,  even 
though  his  conclusions  be  wholly  false.  Crea- 
tion likewise  necessitates  a  creator  though  he 
create  only  delusions.  Belief  surely  presup- 
poses a  believer,  whatever  he  believes.  "  Noth- 
ing" can  neither  claim,  create,  nor  believe  ;  it 
is,  in  fact,  devoid  of  real  or  seeming  activity,  but, 
because  of  the  activities  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
assigns  to  nothing,  error  and  false  belief,  she 
proves  them  "  something,"  and  this  something, 
however  insignificant,  disproves  the  allness  of 
"  Good." 

9 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

Mrs.  Eddy  calls  error  the  absence  of  Truth, 
but  how  can  Truth  be  anywhere,  or  at  any  time, 
absent  ;  and  how  can  error  usurp  or  seem  to 
usurp  its  province,  if  God  (Truth)  is  All? 
Mrs.  Eddy  also  says,  "  Matter  is  Spirit's  sup- 
posed opposite,  the  absence  of  Spirit ; "  but 
how  can  Omnipresent  Spirit  have  an  opposite, 
or  be  absent  from  anything  ? 

Emerson  says  "  The  true  doctrine  of  Omni- 
presence is,  that  God  reappears  with  all  His 
parts  in  every  moss  and  cobweb."  If  *'  Truth, 
Life  and  Love  fill  immensity  and  are  ever- 
present,"  why  necessary  their  revelation 
through  **  Science,"  and  to  whom  other  than 
themselves  can  they  be  revealed  ?  In  view 
of  the  teachings,  is  not  belief  in  the  existence 
of  malicious  animal  magnetism,  that  dreaded 
viper  of  Christian  Science,  an  utter  absurdity  ? 

It  is  impossible  that  the  Christian  Scientist, 
who  examines  critically  the  fundamentals  of 
his  belief,  should  account  for  the  real  or  imag- 
inary existence  of  evil  except  through  extrane- 
ous means,  for  instance,  the  beguiling  of  the 
serpent  ;  but  such  admission  is  suicidal  as  it 
contradicts  his  chief  tenet,  "  God  is  All." 

Dealing  with  post  mortem  states,  Mrs.  Eddy 
says,  "  In  Christian  Science  there  is  never  a 
retrograde  step."  Continuing  she  says,  ''Jesus 
restored  Lazarus  by  the  understanding  that 
Lazarus  had  never  died  ;  not  by  an  admission 
that  his  body  had  died  and  then  lived  again." 
Mrs.  Eddy  holds  of  Lazarus  that  he  slept  the 

10 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

sleep  by  men  called  death.  According  to  her 
tenets,  he  had  passed  out  of  belief  in  a  mortal 
body.  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  that,  by  raising  Laz- 
arus, Jesus  proved  the  unreality  of  death,  does 
not  obliterate  the  fact  that  he,  the  Founder  of 
Christian  Science,  also  restored  vitality  to  a 
mortal  body  deemed  by  all  Christian  Scientists 
a  mere  delusion.  Evidently  this  much  in  the 
act  of  Jesus  was  a  retrograde  step. 

Swedenborg,  always  a  logical  reasoner,  says, 
"  It  is  the  general  idea  that  because  what  is 
finite  is  not  capable  of  containing  what  is  Infin- 
ite, therefore  finite  things  cannot  be  the  recep- 
tacle of  the  Infinite.  That  the  Divine  Infinite 
is  in  men  appears  from  the  Word  where  it  is 
written,  '  And  God  said.  Let  us  make  man  in 
our  image  ;  '  from  whence  it  follows  that  a  man 
is  an  organ  recipient  of  God.  The  human  mind, 
according  as  man  prepares  the  way,  is  a  recep- 
tacle of  Divine  influx  ;  if  the  door  be  fully 
open,  man  becomes  truly  an  image  of  God." 

Though  defining  man  to  be  reflection  of  the 
Divine,  Mrs.  Eddy  adds  that  "  the  Divine  is  no 
more  in  him  than  man  is  in  the  mirror  which 
reflects  his  image." 

To  say  that  God  is  All,  and  then  to  assert 
that  He  is  not  in  man,  is  contradiction  because 
the  All  must  be  in  everything  ;  one  cannot 
imagine  a  container  in  which  nothing  is.  Mrs. 
Eddy's  definition  of  man  necessarily  denies  to 
him  any  individuality  and  so  destroys  every 
vestige  of  his  free  will.     He  cannot  look  other- 

11 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

where  than  Godvvard  :  he  cannot  think  other- 
wise than  of  God,  for  his  thought  is  God's 
thought,  he  being  reflection  of  God.  Because 
he  is  devoid  of  individuality,  no  "  I  am  I  " 
inheres  in  man.  He  must  abnegate  selfhood 
and  think  thus,  I  am  God's  reflection  in  which 
He  is  not.  But  this  thought  is  illogical  because 
it  implies  something  other  than  God,  to  wit,  a 
vacuum  in  which  He  is  not.  In  a  universe 
where  God  is  All,  He  is  both  thinker  and 
thought,  both  original  and  reflection  ;  there- 
fore, a  better  definition  of  man  would  be,  he  is 
part  of  God  :  But  even  this  definition  is  illogi- 
cal because  God  is  One  and  indivisible  ;  so  we 
are  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  man  is  God. 
Such  also  is  the  outcome  of  Hindoo  meta- 
physics wherein  the  Supreme  Mind  can  and 
does  focus  Itself  in  the  heart  of  every  creature. 
Emerson  tells  us  that  "  The  value  of  the  uni- 
verse contrives  to  throw  itself  into  every  point." 
"  Reason  and  revelation  declare  that  God  is 
both  noumena  and  phenomenon,  the  first  and 
only  Cause."  From  one  who  disavows  and 
denounces  Pantheism,  this  is  a  startling  state- 
ment. In  established  usage  the  Noumenon  is 
the  Original,  the  Essence,  the  immutable  Sub- 
stance ;  the  phenomena  are  its  impressions  on 
the  brain  and  the  physical  senses.  Thus  the 
idealist  would  define  matter  as  the  phenome- 
non of  Spiritual  Reality.  Referring  to  the  first 
and  only  Cause,  the  plural,  noumena,  is  of 
course    incorrect.     Allowing    to   Mrs.  Eddy  a 

12 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

special  use  of  the  word  phenomenon,  it  can  be 
defined  as  meaning  the  spiritual  universe,  the 
creation  of  Mind  ;  the  total  of  God's  thoughts 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest.  Therefore  Rea- 
son and  revelation  declare  that  God  is  both  the 
thinker  and  His  thoughts.  This  identification 
of  subject  and  object  is  a  form  of  Pantheism. 

"  The  theory  that  soul,  spirit,  intelligence, 
inhabits  matter  is  taught  by  the  schools.  This 
theory  is  unscientific."  Why  so  ?  Instead  of 
an  outcast,  may  not  matter  be  a  crude,  little- 
evolved  manifestation  of  Spirit,  one  to  be 
refined  until  it  eventuates  in  perfection  ?  This 
view  endows  with  divine  purpose  the  past, 
present,  and  future  of  mundane  existence. 

Mrs.  Eddy  inquires,  "  What  evidence  of  Soul 
have  you  within  mortality  ?  What  basis  is 
there  for  the  theory  of  indwelling  Spirit  except 
the  claim  of  Mortal  Mind  ?  "  Because  of  these 
questions,  the  present  writer  would  himself 
inquire.  What  evidence  has  "  Science  and 
Health"  produced  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  opposite  the- 
ory ?  Although  she  has  much  to  say  concern- 
ing logic,  what  consistent  argument  has  she  put 
forth  in  support  of  her  divinely  inspired  teach- 
ing ?  Which  is  more  reasonable,  that  mortal 
mind,  a  mere  empty  nothing,  logically  qui- 
escent, endows  an  imaginary  physical  body 
and  brain  with  their  seeming  activities,  or,  that 
unfolding  soul  is  using  its  physical  tenement 
to  acquire  that  experience  which  this  vast  and 
teeming  physical  globe  alone  can  furnish  ? 

13 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 


III 


Since    the    days    of   the    exodus,  orthodox 
believers  have  held  that,  on  the  top  of  Sinai, 
Jehovah  delivered  to  Moses,  first  by  word  of 
mouth  and  then  in  writing,  the  ten  command- 
ments.    Now  if  Christian  Science  is  true,  how 
could   Jehovah    say,    "  Thus    saith  the  Lord," 
concerning  that  of  which  by  the  laws  of  His 
being  He  is  inhibited  from  knowing?     Did  He 
not   reveal  to  the  child  Samuel  the  sins  and 
punishment  of   Eli's    sons,  and,   afterward,  to 
Samuel    the  man,   the  error  and   forthcoming 
dethronement  of  Saul?     Did  He  not,  through 
Nathan  His  prophet,  make  David  the  denouncer 
of  his  own  crime?     Did  He  not,  through  Elijah, 
rebuke  the  idolatries  of   His   chosen   people  ? 
Did  not  Micaiah  prophesy  face  to  face  against 
Ahab  because  of  his  transgressions  in  the  sight 
of   the    Lord  ?     Did    not    Elisha    foretell    to 
Hagael  the  evil  he,  as  king  of  Syria,  would  yet 
work  upon  the  Jews  ?     Did  not  Isaiah,  obeying 
the  Divine  command,  cry  thus  against  a  fro- 
ward  nation,  "  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings 
from  before  mine  eyes  ?  "     And  Jeremiah,  and 
Ezekiel,  did  not  the  Lord  God  put  denuncia- 
tion into   their  speech  ?     And  what  of  Hosea 
and  Joel  and   Amos  and  Obadiah   and  Micah 
and    all    the   rest  ?     Did   they   not   announce 
authoritatively   the    judgments    of    the    Most 
High? 

14 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

In  contradistinction  to  these  mighty  voices 
of  old,  we  have  the  dictum  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  "  God 
is  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  both  mortal 
mind  and  its  claim."  Many  will  deny  the 
Divine  inspiration  of  the  Hebrew  Prophets, 
and  yet,  such  is  the  inconsistency  of  human 
nature,  some  of  these  doubters  will  without 
cavil  accept  Mrs.  Eddy  as  the  great  light- 
bringer  to  this  present  age. 

The  history  of  man  is  the  record  of  his  rise 
from  densest  ignorance  to  that  which,  if  not  an 
adequate  comprehension  of  Truth,  is  at  least  a 
praiseworthy  approach  to  it.  A  little  clear 
thinking  will  show  that  prehistoric  man,  the 
primal  savage,  sunken  in  the  lowest  deep  of 
ignorance,  could  never  have  risen  if  error  were 
wholly  separated  from  Truth.  If  Christian 
Science  tenets  may  be  trusted,  God  cannot 
descend  from  Truth  to  uplift  such  as  he.  But 
the  fact  is  patent  that  somehow  man's  semi- 
animal  ancestor,  in  other  words  "  error  beget- 
ting other  error,"  did  eventually  produce  the 
philosopher  and  the  sage. 

A  little  more  clear  thinking  will  show  that 
all  truth  is  relative,  because  of  which  the  pos- 
sibility of  man's  unfolding  appears.  God  in 
His  universe  is  the  Omnipotent  and  Omnipres- 
ent Author  of  the  Archetypal,  the  Real  of 
things.  God,  as  First  and  Final  Cause,  is  the 
Source  of  thought  and  so  of  all  thinking  what- 
soever. Therefore  all  belief,  however  per- 
verted, is  sourced  in  God  and  His  realities.     It 

15 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

is  not  God's  plan  to  compel  thought  toward 
Himself,  and  yet,  no  thought  independent  of 
Him,  can  stir  a  fibre  of  man's  brain,  no,  not 
even  the  thought  which  denies  God.  But  then, 
no  thought  can  wholly  deny  God  and  so 
divorce  itself  absolutely  from  the  Source  of 
thought.  No  creature  can  invent  a  foundation- 
less  lie.  At  its  worst,  a  lie  is  Truth  distorted, 
misinterpreted,  or  seen  as  through  a  glass 
darkly. 

While  God  is  the  Source  of  all  perception, 
no  two  beings  perceive  Him  alike  ;  moreover, 
the  ability  to  know  Him  in  His  fullness  is  a 
gradual  process,  for  such  is  His  Will.  To  the 
savage  his  fetich  stands  for  truth  ;  it  is  a  truth 
than  which  he  can  lift  his  eyes  no  higher.  He 
who  in  sincerity  bows  down  to  wood  and  stone, 
prepares  his  heart  for  a  better  truth.  He  who 
sacrifices  to  his  tribal  god,  striving  to  do  his 
just  will,  shall  receive  a  truth-seeker's  reward  ; 
no  longer  claiming  an  eye  for  an  eye,  or  a  tooth 
for  a  tooth,  he  shall  come  under  the  law  of 
love,  the  full  understanding  of  which  is  knowl- 
edge of  the  very  essence  of  Being.  Where 
then  does  error  end  and  truth  begin  ?  The 
answer  is  that  there  is  no  apprehensible  line  of 
demarkation.  If  it  were  possible  to  ask  of 
beings  more  evolved  than  man,  what  is  Truth  ? 
they  would  no  doubt  reply,  "  That  toward 
which  we  strive." 

Holding  that  to  God  no  dualism  is  in  the 
essential  nature  of  things,  Mrs.  Eddy  limits  His 

16 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

knowledge  to  the  "  Real,"  so  denying  to  Him 
knowledge  of  the  attitude  of  mortal  mind 
toward  those  errors  which  hold  it  in  servile 
bondage.  If  illusion  have  no  lesson  for  man, 
surely  our  pilgrimage  here  is  meaningless,  a 
waste  of  time  and  energy  abhorrent  to  the 
Divine  Economy.  Man's  rounded,  completed 
knowledge  must  include  that  of  Being  and  non- 
being  ;  the  Real,  and  what  results  from  mis- 
conception of  the  Real. 

Thus  only  is  man,  the  warrior,  invincible  in 
every  part  ;  no  heel  of  Achilles  shall  prove  his 
bane.  Having  completed  its  mental  and  moral 
evolution,  having  fought  its  way  upward  ;  hav- 
ing won  the  Real,  humanity  will  there  forever 
hold  against  all  attack,  the  fastness  of  Wisdom. 
A  wiser  than  God  it  becomes  if  God  know  not 
the  nature  of  unreality. 

Should  we  soar  to  the  broadest  view  of  the 
human  problem,  we  would  perceive  that,  in  the 
Divine  Economy,  sin  itself  is  made  minister  to 
the  ends  of  Wisdom.  Sin  is  deadly  and  disin- 
tegrating, the  antithesis  of  all  to  be  attained. 
"The  soul  that  sinneth  —  remaineth  in  sin  —  it 
shall  die."  Therefore  must  the  inexperienced 
soul,  even  by  the  harshest  means,  be  turned 
from  sin. 

A  characterless  uniter  of  boundless  but  latent 
possibilities  ;  a  dweller  in  God,  and  upheld  by 
God,  the  soul  of  man,  free  because  individual, 
unfree  because  dependent  upon  God,  begins  its 
pilgrimage  to  perfection.     Ignorant,  it  must  at 

17 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

all  hazards,  even  to  the  eating  of  the  fruit  of 
the  tree,  attain  unto  knowledge,  and,  finally, 
unto  wisdom.  Negatively  good,  it  must,  at  all 
hazards,  attain  unto  positive  good  and  that 
Divine  Compassion  for  the  erring  which  is  the 
crown  of  the  Christ  Spirit.  Healthful  and  death- 
less, not  yet  having  transgressed,  it  must,  even 
by  expulsion  from  Paradise  ;  it  must,  even 
though  the  gates  of  mortal  pain  and  death, 
attain  that  Eden  of  health  and  deathlessness 
from  which,  because  a  knower  of  the  results  of 
violated  law,  it  shall  never  again  be  driven 
forth. 

We  read  in  Holy  Writ,  "  And  the  Lord  God 
said.  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as  one  of  us, 
to  know  good  and  evil  ;  and  now,  lest  he  put 
forth  his  hand,  and  take  also  of  the  tree  of  life, 
and  eat,  and  live  forever  ;  therefore,  the  Lord 
God  sent  him  forth  from  the  garden  of  Eden  to 
till  the  ground." 

Although  Adam,  having  eaten,  knew  both 
good  and  evil,  the  apple  was  yet  sweet,  evil 
not  having  turned  to  bitterness  in  his  mouth. 
Taking  of  the  tree  of  life,  he  would  become 
immortal  in  evil  :  so  he  was  shut  out  to  learn 
the  lesson  of  suffering. 

Had  primal  man  been  endowed  with  faculty 
of  right  seeing  and  right  choice,  there  had  been 
no  apparent  fall.  Realizing  that  man  retains 
of  the  Divine  bounty  nothing  he  has  not  con- 
quered for  himself,  Swedenborg  gave  to  his 
angels  mortal  experience,  all  were  once  men. 

18 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

No  less  a  thinker  than  Carlyle  remarks  that 
*•  Christianity  was  founded  on  poverty,  on 
sorrow,  contradiction,  crucifixion,  every  species 
of  worldly  distress  and  degradation.  We  may 
say  that  he  who  has  not  known  those  things, 
and  learned  from  them  their  priceless  lesson, 
has  missed  a  good  opportunity  of  schooling." 

Keener  of  sight  than  those  sentimentalists 
who  see  but  the  moment,  Friedrich  Nietzsche 
truly  says,  '*  The  discipline  of  suffering,  of  great 
suffering  —  know  ye  not  that  it  is  only  this 
discipline  that  has  produced  all  the  evolution 
of  humanity  hitherto  ?  The  tension  of  soul  in 
misfortune  which  communicates  to  it  its  ener- 
gy, its  inventiveness  and  bravery  in  undergoing, 
enduring,  interpreting,  and  exploiting  mis- 
fortune ;  has  it  not  been  bestowed  through 
suffering,  through  the  discipline  of  great  suf- 
fering ?" 

Denying  the  purpose  and  reality  of  every  evil 
afflicting  the  world.  Christian  Science  cannot 
sorrow  over  Jerusalem  and  weep  at  the  grave 
of  Lazarus  because  sorrow  is  delusion  and  joy 
alone  is  real.  Such  attitude  of  sympathy  is 
affirmation  of  error.  He  who  sorrows  over 
Jerusalem,  confirms  conditions  which  bring 
about  its  fall.  He  who  weeps  at  the  tomb, 
asserts  the  triumph  of  the  grave. 

According  to  "Science,"  sympathetic  sorrow 
or  weeping  is  but  a  high  phase  of  mortal  mind. 
That  Jesus  sorrowed  or  wept  at  the  delusion  of 
those  who  sorrowed  or  wept,  proved  him  not 

19 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

yet  devoid  of  error.  And  yet,  in  Luke's  Gospel, 
the  Master's  own  words  read  thus,  '*  it  behooved 
Christ  to  suffer,"  and  again,  "Ought  not  Christ 
to  have  suffered  these  things,  and  to  enter  into 
His  Glory  ?"  According  to  Christian  Science, 
Christ  cannot  suffer  nor  sorrow,  neither  can  He 
weep.  That  Jesus  did  all  this  was  of  Mary  the 
mortal  mother  of  the  mortal  man.  It  was  of 
an  uneliminated  error  betraying  him  into  the 
weakness  of  tears.  Is  not  giving  of  other  than 
spiritual  food  to  the  starving  beggar  a  conces- 
sion to  his  error  of  belief  ?  Still  the  Christian 
Scientist  must  give,  for,  otherwise,  the  beggar 
would  die.  Did  not  the  dispenser  of  the  bread 
of  life  accentuated,  by  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves  and  fishes,  the  notion  of  physical 
hunger  ? 

If  sorrow  and  suffering  are  unreal,  what  can  be 
said  of  the  sublime  closing  acts  in  the  life  of  the 
man  of  sorrows  ?  Were  not  Gethsemane  and 
Calvary  all  that  sacred  history  records  of  them  ? 
That  cup  of  bitterness  which  in  a  mortal  moment 
the  Master  would  have  pass  from  him  ;  was  one 
drop  thereof  less  bitter  because  he  knew  the 
secret  laws  of  being  ?  Did  he  at  the  crisis 
refuse  to  drain  that  unmerited  cup  ?  No  !  An 
unresisting  prisoner  before  Pilate,  he  submitted 
to  gross  indignity  and  unjust  condemnation  ; 
but,  having  raised  the  dead,  he  could  as  easily 
have  stricken  down  the  living  and  walked  forth 
to  freedom.  Mrs.  Eddy  cannot  escape  the  logic 
of  the  situation  ;  in  sorrow  and  suffering  there 

20 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

is  a  reality  and  use  strangely  overlooked  by  her 
strange  philosophy. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "  According  to  Divine  Law, 
sin  and  suffering  are  not  cancelled  by  repent- 
ance or  pardon."  "  Every  effect  and  amplifica- 
tion of  wrong  will  revert  to  the  wrong  doer 
until  he  pays  his  full  debt  to  Divine  Law."  This 
is,  indeed,  a  wide  departure  from  her  early 
orthodoxy.  But  has  she  no  balm  more  effect- 
ive than  repentance  or  pardon  ?  Certainly. 
"  Destroy  the  thought  of  sin,  sickness,  death, 
and  you  destroy  their  existence."  That  is  to 
say,  fully  accept  Mrs.  Eddy's  demonstration  of 
Truth  and  you  have  paid  in  total  the  debt  to 
Divine  Law.  Morally  and  physically,  you  are 
every  whit  whole  although  others,  less-enlight- 
ened, must  continue  to  suffer  from  your  wrong 
doing.  Evidently,  the  cardinal  sin  is  ignorance 
of  Truth  as  announced  by  the  discoverer  of 
Divine  Science.  Evidently,  that  discoverer  has 
gone  farther  in  unreason  than  the  doctrine  she 
so  long  ago  repudiated  as  a  thing  against  reason. 

IV 

Mrs.  Eddy  admits  of  the  Master  that  "  he  left 
no  definite  rule  for  demonstrating  his  Principle 
of  healing.  This  remained  to  be  discovered 
through  Christian  Science."  Acceptance  or 
rejection  of  the  second  statement  will  depend 
upon  individual  estimate  of  her  mission. 

Mrs.  Eddy  assures  the  disciple  that  "The 
medicine  of  Science  is  Divine  Mind."     In  her 

21 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

method  this  is  deemed  effective  because  the 
only  mind.  Inasmuch  as  she  fails  to  prove  the 
allness  of  Divine  Mind,  the  critic  has  cause  to 
hold  her  silent  treatment  of  disease  to  be  a 
form  of  human  will  power,  that  which  she  calls 
"  the  prayer  of  the  unrighteous."  She  says, 
••  Remember  that  the  unexpressed  belief  often- 
times effects  a  sensitive  patient  more  strongly 
than  expressed  thought."  "The  Esquimaux 
restore  health  by  incantations  (a  form  of  hyp- 
notism) as  consciously  as  do  civilized  practi- 
tioners by  their  more  studied  methods."  "A 
thorough  perusal  of  the  author's  publications 
heals  sickness."  What,  we  would  ask,  is  this 
last  but  self-hypnotism? 

In  many  instances,  both  Jesus  and  his  disci- 
ples accompanied  healing  with  the  laying  on 
of  hands.  Naturally  enough,  and  as  many  can 
testify,  in  the  early  days  of  Christian  Science, 
such  procedure  was  recommended  to  the  stu- 
dent and  practiced  by  Mrs.  Eddy  herself. 
However,  after  the  apostasy  of  Kennedy  and 
Spofford,  it  seemed  wise  to  separate  the  sheep 
from  the  goats;  so,  as  a  means  of  distin- 
guishing the  black  from  the  white,  all  students 
henceforth  were  taught  that  to  touch  the 
patient  during  treatment  is  nothing  less  than 
the  mal-practice  of  the  hypnotist.  It  is  well 
known  that  an  expert  in  Suggestive  Therapeu- 
tics need  not  manipulate  or  touch  his  patient, 
make  passes,  or  throw  him  into  the  mesmeric 
sleep.      Healing,   the  "fruitage"  of  Christian 

22 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Science,  shrink  to  this  small  kernel,  a  novel 
form  of  mental  suggestion. 

By  calling  this  life  a  dream,  Mrs.  Eddy  but 
emphasizes  the  teaching  of  idealism  from  be- 
fore the  days  of  Plato.  That  the  physical 
senses  in  every  way  cheat  man  is  the  verdict  of 
the  entire  idealistic  succession.  Why  and  how 
and  where  this  prevailing  delusion,  this  uni- 
versal hypnotism,  originated  is  an  inquiry 
quite  apart  from  our  present  purpose.  Suffice 
it  that  the  all-controlling  dream  proves  every 
creature  susceptible  to  suggestion  in  some 
sort.  The  concensus  of  human  opinion,  hav- 
ing all  the  rigidity  of  a  fixed  fact,  must  be 
combatted  single-handed  by  the  operator. 

Suggestion  is  that  ancient  giant  whose  mighty 
shoulders  have  long  upborne  the  world  ;  a 
giant  who,  if  only  free,  could  overturn  the 
world  and  send  it  spinning  down  the  abyss. 

For  the  savage,  the  din  of  drums  and  the 
practice  of  fantastic  rites  are  needed  to  af- 
fright and  expel  the  devils  that  delight  in  tor- 
menting him.  For  the  civilized  man,  such 
crude  suggestion,  such  palpable  absurdity,  is 
null  and  void.  Milder  means  alone  reach  his 
case.  For  the  Christian  Scientist,  earnest 
meditation  or  dissertation  on  the  one  Mind,  and 
the  universality  of  Good,  and  the  consequent 
non-being  of  every  evil,  have  proved  a  remark- 
ably successful  cure-all.  To  dignify  this  last 
procedure  by  any  name  other  than  ''The  Eddy 
method  "  is  unwarranted  and  misleading. 

23 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

Examining  the  1881  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health,"  we  find  enjoined  in  the  chapter  en- 
titled "  Healing  the  Sick,"  many  precautions 
and  observances  which  any  exponent  of  Sug- 
gestive Therapeutics  would  recognize  as  both 
necessary  and  valuable.  Much,  throughout 
the  book,  must  convince  the  critical  that,  hav- 
ing practiced  and  taught  suggestion,  and 
having  surrounded  herself  with  an  atmosphere 
of  suggestion,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  reaping  her  reward 
in  an  abnormal  and  even  hysterical  sensitive- 
ness to  counter  suggestion.  Such  absurd  and 
frenzied  imaginings  as  abound  in  the  chapter 
on  Demonology  can  proceed  from  no  other 
source. 

Although  she  condemns  every  method  of 
cure  not  her  own,  the  present  writer  holds  that 
a  subtle  danger  lurks  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  manner  of 
healing.  To  prove  this,  let  us  first  examine 
the  operation  of  reward  and  punishment  in 
those  mental  and  material  states  of  conscious- 
ness known  in  Christian  Science  nomenclature 
as  the  world  of  mortal  mind. 

Assigning  whatever  attributes  to  the  High- 
est, we,  descending,  encounter  their  opposites, 
distorted  reflections  of  the  Highest.  The  inva- 
riable effect  of  any  violation  of  Eternal  Law  is 
proportionate  reaction  hurling  the  perception 
of  the  offender  into  a  distorted  idea  of  Reality. 
If  to  the  Highest  we  attribute  health,  then 
every  violator  of  the  laws  of  health  is  by  reac- 
tion   plunged    into    the    delusion    of    disease. 

24 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

That  this  is  so  is  not  of  mortal  mind,  as  the 
Christian  Scientist  asserts,  but  of  God  through 
mortal  mind,  and  for  the  final  vindication  of 
Law.  When  one  hurls  himself  against  the 
impregnable  wall  of  Divine  Law,  rebound  is 
inevitable,  but  the  punishment  is  mental  because 
material  consciousness  is  reducible  to  mental 
consciousness.  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  *'  I  have  dis- 
cerned disease  in  the  human  mind  many  weeks 
before  the  so-called  disease  made  its  appearance 
in  the  body." 

The  Christian  Science  healer  has  discovered 
disease  to  be  mental  delusion  ;  hence  its  denial 
is  a  suggestion  arousing  mortal  mind  to  combat 
and  force  back  the  delusion,  and  the  result  is 
in  appearance,  but  not  in  reality,  a  cure  accom- 
plished. To  assert  that  here  "  there  is  no  trans- 
fer of  mental  pictures  from  one  mortal  mind 
to  another  because  there  is  but  one  Mind"  is  a 
mischievous  fallacy. 

Because  of  his  vast  spiritual  insight,  Jesus, 
in  healing,  never  opposed  the  retributive  law  ; 
nevertheless,  the  fact  cannot  be  ignored  that 
he  not  only  delegated  his  unique  power  to  the 
twelve,  but,  afterward,  to  the  seventy  sent  forth 
in  his  name.  The  Theosophists,  who  claim 
deep  knowledge  in  spiritual  things,  hold  that 
at  the  birth  of  a  world-teacher,  the  wise  ones 
directly  or  indirectly  associated  with  him  in  the 
past,  are  reborn  into  the  immediate,  and  the 
next  circle  of  his  environment.  Such  were 
they  who  went  forth  from  Jesus,  each  endowed 

26 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

in  proportion  to  his  own  understanding  of  the 
law  of  Divine  Justice.  These  healers  therefore 
released  from  the  bonds  of  pain  such,  and  such 
only,  as  the  good  Law  allowed.  After  the 
passing  of  Jesus,  the  guardians  of  humanity 
gradually  hid  the  secret  of  Divine  healing  from 
men  less  and  less  wise  in  its  use.  However, 
this  is  an  explanation  too  occult  for  more  than 
limited  acceptance. 

That  the  real  cause  of  disease  is  neither  in 
physical  body  nor  yet  in  the  mind,  is  the  teach- 
ing of  Swedenborg.  To  him  the  heavens  are 
the  Grand  Man  corresponding  to  the  internal 
structure  and  outward  shape  of  the  human 
body.  From  the  Lord,  through  the  angelic 
societies  constituting  the  Grand  Man,  flow  men- 
tal and  physical  health  to  humanity.  From 
the  hells,  which  are  the  malformed,  diseased 
correspondent  of  the  Grand  Man,  and  from  the 
satans  and  devils  who  have  chosen  the  hells, 
arises  disease  of  body  and  mind.  Normal  body 
and  mind  favor  the  heavenly  influx  ;  abnormal 
body  and  mind  close  the  channels  from 
above  and  open  the  flood  gates  from  below. 
Thus  Jesus  on  the  cross  felt  the  influx  of  the 
hells. 

Material  medicine,  but,  better  still,  the  ban- 
ishing of  fear  and  all  evil  emotions,  and,  in 
place,  the  arousing  of  their  opposites,  restore 
normal  conditions  of  body,  while  surgery,  by 
resetting  the  break  or  dislocation,  also  favors 
renewal  of  interrupted  health  from  the  Lord. 

26 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  body  of  the  well-doer  often  suffers 
because  of  evil  heredity;  but  if  his  ancestors,  or 
rather  if  all  men  before  him,  had  lived  the  life 
of  good,  his  interiors,  like  those  of  angels, 
would  always  be  open  into  heaven.  Knowing 
nothing  of  disease,  man,  in  extreme  age,  would 
pass  into  a  body  such  as  angels  have. 

'*  Swedenborg  shows  that  the  brain  coverings 
are  composed  of  threefold  cells  ;  the  first  of 
these  should  pour  their  fluids  into  the  less  fine, 
they  in  turn  should  empty  into  the  relatively 
coarse.  Heredity  has  closed  the  two  fine  sets 
of  cells,  and  the  coarse  is  filled  with  impurity. 
Swedenborg  teaches  that  these  finer  cells  may 
be  opened  by  regeneration,  and  so  discharge 
their  cleansing  fluids  until  the  impurities  of  the 
brain  and  nervous  system  are  purged  away." 

The  office  of  the  true  mental  healer,  like  that 
of  the  Lord  at  his  first  coming,  is  to  restore 
brain  and  bodily  conditions  necessary  to  Divine 
influx,  and  so  to  cast  out  the  devils  drawn  into 
conjunction  with  the  morally  and  physically 
diseased. 

In  accord  with  his  doctrine  of  "  discreet 
degrees,"  Swedenborg  establishes  hard  and 
fast  bounds  between  natural  and  spiritual  law. 
Therefore,  if  of  good  physical  heredity,  and  if 
a  conformer  to  natural  law,  the  sinner  may  be 
physically  immune,  whereas  the  saint,  if  physi- 
cally less  fortunately  circumstanced,  may 
always  be  ill  in  body.  Such  conclusions,  with 
which  a  surface  view  of  life  agrees,  have  led 

27 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

men  into  agnosticism  and  downright  atheism  ; 
and  no  wonder,  for  modern  ideas  of  what  con- 
stitutes human  justice  require  that  at  least  of  a 
Divine  Ruler  whose  law  is  perfect  Justice. 
Evidently  the  Swedish  seer  has  not  fathomed 
the  cause  of  physical  disease ;  therefore  we 
may  distrust  his  sounding  of  the  mental  laws 
which  underlie  Divine  healing. 

In  the  esoteric  schools  of  the  East  it  is 
taught  that  full  submission  of  human  will  to 
Divine  Will  favors  unimpeded  consummation 
of  Divine  Justice  toward  the  individual  ;  and, 
because  of  this,  the  life  of  the  saint  may  be 
filled  with  sorrow  and  suffering.  Thus  is  made 
clear  that  dark  saying,  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth 
he  chasteneth."  That  one  holds  this  view  of 
disease  and  suffering  is  no  reason  for  morbid- 
ity. The  medicine  of  cheerfulness  and  hope  is 
always  consistent  since  the  Law  may  at  any 
time  be  satisfied.  On  the  other  hand,  to  chafe 
under  discipline  is  to  augment  the  necessity  of 
discipline. 

In  physical  disease  the  mind,  conforming  to 
spiritual  Law,  has  thrown  an  internal  discord 
to  the  surface,  and,  until  the  Higher  Law  is 
satisfied,  the  mind  should  persistently  hold  it 
there  ;  but  now  some  meddlesome  Scientist 
restores  outer  harmony  by  paralyzing  the 
physical  disease,  as  such,  and  pushing  it,  latent 
and  in  no  wise  healed,  back  into  its  mental 
source. 

Would  the  mental  practitioner  heal  ?    Would 

28 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

he  say,  "Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee;  Arise, 
taice  up  thy  bed,  and  go  unto  thine  house  "  ? 
Then  let  him  first  explore  the  labyrinthian 
hiding  places  of  memory  back  therein  the  dim 
past  ;  let  him  then  drag  forth  and  destroy,  if 
he  can,  the  seemingly  forgotten  causes  of 
physical  and  mental  pain  ;  those  which  the 
soul,  dimly-conscious  of  its  own  highest 
good,  remembers  as,  with  what  fortitude  it 
can  muster,  it  undergoes  the  fiery  purification 
of  suffering. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  contention  that  materia  medica 
and  hygiene  are  effective  against  disease  solely 
because  mortal  belief  has  made  them  so,  is 
contradicted  by  certain  palpable  facts  ;  to 
illustrate  :  Time  out  of  mind  the  treatment  of 
pulmonary  troubles,  and  all  diseases  of  the  res- 
piratory tract,  has  been  along  certain  lines. 
Despite  the  incredulity  of  the  medical  fraternity 
at  large,  and  the  strenuous  opposition  of  both 
the  patient  and  his  friends,  a  diametrically  op- 
posite method  has  by  its  extraordinary  success 
well-nigh  vindicated  itself.  On  the  other  hand, 
because  of  prevailing  unbelief,  Mrs.  Eddy 
advises  her  healers  to  leave  the  mending  of 
bones  to  the  ordinary  surgeon. 

The  more  is  studied  the  problem  of  sin  and 
consequent  suffering,  the  more  is  it  evident  that 
the  world  is  yet  facing  a  mystery,  that  of  Divine 
healing,  which,  with  the  mystery  of  tongues 
and  their  interpretation —according  to  Eddy- 
ism,  the  statement  and  understanding  of  Divine 

29 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

Science  —  has,  since  the  first  centuries,  eluded 
the  Christian  Church. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  balderdash  in"  Science 
and  Health,"  to  the  effect  that,  because  of  their 
faith  in  materia  medica,  *'  Doctors  are  filling 
the  world  with  disease,"  is  beneath  the  con- 
tempt of  a  body  of  men  that,  especially  during 
the  last  few  decades,  has  achieved  a  record 
both  in  the  cure  of  ordinary  disease  and  in  the 
stamping  out  of  epidemics.  That  record  chal- 
lenges the  examination  of  the  sceptical  and 
compels  the  admiration  of  the  unprejudiced. 
The  long  record  of  the  medical  profession  is 
one  of  conscientious  duty,  painstaking  investi- 
gation and  priceless  discovery  in  the  domain  of 
real,  ameliorating  Science.  It  is  a  record  to 
which  the  hospital,  the  sanitorium  and  the  pri- 
vate home  are  daily  testifying. 

V 

Theosophists  point  the  finger  of  reproach 
and  scorn  at  the  Christian  Science  healer's  cus- 
tom of  requiring  a  fee  of  all  able  to  pay.  To 
the  impartial  onlooker  it  must  be  evident  that 
no  argument  of  the  Sophist  can  place  Divine 
healing  and  instruction  therein  on  a  commer- 
cial basis.  If  Mrs.  Eddy  believes  that  God 
authorized  her  fixing  a  price  on  these,  then  she 
is  misled  of  Error,  that  cunning,  truth-counter- 
feiting devil  ;  that  Eve-beguiling  serpent  whose 
heel  she,  the  new  Eve,  the  enlightened  spirit- 
ual mother,  thinks  to  bruise. 

30 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Those  of  old  who  were  entitled  to  the  gift  of 
Divine  healing,  those  in  fact  whom  Jesus  called, 
were  by  him  admonished  concerning  the  hard 
and  well-nigh  impossible  conditions  to  which 
they  must  conform.  "  Freely  ye  have  received, 
freely  give.  Provide  neither  gold,  nor  silver, 
nor  brass,  in  your  purses  ;  nor  script  for  your 
journey,  neither  two  coats,  neither  shoes  nor 
yet  staves  ;  for  the  workman  is  worthy  of  his 
meat.  Behold  I  send  you  forth  as  sheep  in  the 
midst  of  wolves  ;  and  ye  shall  be  brought 
before  governors  and  kings  for  my  sake." 

Is  it  possible  that  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  healers 
realize  the  stupendous  nature  of  their  claim  to 
be  instruments  and  revelators  of  Divine  Mind? 
Evidently  not,  for  otherwise  they  would  have 
purged  themselves  of  every  semblance  of 
greed.  Like  St.  Francis  and  his  followers,  they 
would  have  been  impelled  to  the  vow  of  life- 
long poverty.  The  argument  that  a  fee  be 
required  of  patients  lest  ingratitude  be  fostered 
in  them,  is  a  miserable  sophistry,  a  contention 
unwarranted  by  anything  that  can  be  read  into 
the  Master's  words. 

Does  such  sacrifice  as  the  vow  of  life-long 
poverty  seem  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  her  healers, 
an  absurdly  literal  following  of  the  old  in  these 
widely-different  times  ?  Have  the  hearts  of 
mortals  so  hardened  that  to-day  the  Divine 
healer  of  human  ills  must  demand  his  meat  or 
starve  ?  Common  sense  spurns  the  insinuation, 
but  hints  that  the  material  world  and  its  good 

31 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

things  are  too  much  with  these  discoverers  and 
promulgators  of  other  world  conditions  and 
requirements.  The  fact  that  Christian  Science 
practitioners  are  densely  ignorant  of  what  con- 
stitutes trustworthiness,  proves  that  the  sacred 
trust  of  Divine  healing,  and  instruction  in  Divine 
healing,  was  never  committed  to  their  keeping. 

That  profound  thinker,  Immanuel  Kant,  calls 
duty,  "the  sublime  and  mighty  that  embraces 
nothing  charming  or  insinuating."  The  "  Cat- 
egorical Imperative  "  of  the  Kantian  philoso- 
phy compels  duty  in  those  who  attain  to  under- 
standing of  duty.  He  who  is  truly  dutiful  is  so 
from  motives  other  than  fear,  or  desire  of  gain. 
These  motives  have  ever  swayed  the  ordinary 
religionist,  but  Kant  calls  us  to  a  height  where 
the  conception  of  duty  for  its  own  sake  is  the 
inward  voice  of  God  as  the  supreme  Law-Giver. 

Every  copy  of  *'  Science  and  Health  "  has 
impressed  on  its  cover  theScriptual  injunction, 
*'  Heal  the  sick  ;  raise  the  dead  ;  cleanse  the 
lepers  ;  cast  oat  devils."  In  the  preface  to  the 
edition  of  1881,  the  reader  is  informed  that 
•'  The  author  takes  no  patients,  but  takes  stu- 
dents in  the  treatment  of  disease  through  Mind. 
Her  tuition  per  pupil  is  $300.00."  Extra  les- 
sons were  later  added  to  the  course,  and  the 
tuition  was  advanced  to  $800.00.  After  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  acquired  a  competence  through 
teaching  and  the  sale  of  her  book,  her  prefaces 
informed  the  public  that  "  the  author  takes  no 
patients,  and  declines  medical  consultation." 

32 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  sophistical  reason  for  Mrs.  Eddy's  ex- 
emption from  the  imperative  call  to  entire  duty 
probably  is  that  her  time  and  energies  must  be 
given  to  matters  of  greater  moment.  Such 
elastic  conscience  in  the  presence  of  the  sub- 
lime and  mighty  law  of  duty,  was  never  in 
Jesus.  His  brief  years  of  ministry  were  crowded 
with  cares  and  duties,  important  among  which 
was  the  task  of  instructing  his  immediate  fol- 
lowers. Although  he  was  surrounded  by  sick- 
ness and  death,  never  did  such  heartless  words 
as  "  I  am  otherwise  busy,"  eome  from  the  lips 
of  the  Master. 

Beside  the  bed  of  mortal  pain  the  Divine 
healer  strives  to  picture  in  himself,  and  his  pa- 
tient, the  perfect,  God-manifesting  man.  Fail- 
ing to  cure,  or  even  to  help,  he  feels  that  his 
inability  to  demonstrate  Divine  Science  is  due 
to  some  error  of  mortal  mind  blurring  in  him- 
self the  pure  reflection  of  Truth.  "Alas  !  "  he 
cries,  "  I  have  not  lived  the  life  !  "  Nor  has  he, 
for  none  is  perfect  save  God  alone.  And  yet, 
O  the  irony  of  it  !  his  most  subtle  error  was 
implanted  and  nurtured  by  his  infallible  teacher. 
That  error  is  the  expectation  of  silver  and 
gold,  clean  in  themselves,  but  defiling,  O  how 
defiling  !  in  an  exchange  as  of  one  commodity 
for  another.  Elisha  claimed  no  fee  of  Naaman, 
and  though  pressed  he  even  refused  a  gift. 
Peter  laid  a  curse  on  one  who  thought  that  the 
gift  of  God  could  be  purchased  with  money. 
"Thy  money  perish  with  thee,"     "Thou  hast 

33 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

neither  part  nor  lot  in  this  matter,  for  thy  heart 
is  not  right  in  the  sight  of  God." 

The  Pastor  Emeritus  of  "The  first  Church  of 
Christ  Scientist,  Boston,"  says,  "As  in  Jesus' 
time,  so  to-day,  tyranny  and  pride  need  to  be 
whipped  out  of  the  temple  and  humility  and 
Divine  Science  welcomed  in."  It  is  recorded  of 
Jesus  that  in  his  purification  of  God's  house  he 
overthrew  the  tables  of  the  money  changers. 
Therefore  O  humble  Scientist  ;  know  you  this  ! 
Therefore  O  unworldly  one  ;  consider  well  !  If 
Jesus  should  come  to  your  costliest  temple, 
even  your  sacred  Mother  Church,  he  w^ould 
straightway  scourge  from  it  that  spirit  of  thrift 
which  urges  the  healer  to  realize  well  on  his 
money  investment,  and  so  make  Christian  Sci- 
ence pay. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says  **  The  physical  affirmation 
of  disease  should  always  be  met  with  the  men- 
tal negation."  In  the  Eddy  method  of  healing, 
and  in  all  methods  which  heal  by  negation,  the 
danger  is  a  vital  one  because  these  methods  are 
denial  of  God's  law  of  reaction  by  which  alone 
the  harmony  of  the  universe  is  maintained. 
These  methods  would  thwart  the  means  where- 
by, in  the  providence  of  the  All  Wise,  mankind 
will  attain  to  everlasting  health.  Nevertheless, 
the  Law  is  not  thwarted.  Reformation  does 
not  of  itself  cancel  the  penalty  of  crime  for, 
never,  until  the  penalty  is  fully  paid,  is  justice 
satisfied  and  disease  destroyable  ;  then,  by  per- 
mission of  the  Law,  it  ceases  of  itself,  or,  for 

34 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

some  purpose  of  God,  who  works  ever  with 
manifold  object,  for  instance  the  inculcation  of 
active  human  sympathy,  the  ministrations  of 
man  become  necessary  to  recovery.  Further- 
more, that  mortals  may  realize  their  mutual 
dependence,  even  the  strongest  are  at  times 
brought  by  sickness  to  seek  relief  of  others. 

The  regular  practitioner  can  testify  that  often 
after  long  illness,  the  patient's  habit  of  think- 
ing himself  sick  continues  into  the  period  of 
convalescence.  In  such  instance  the  stimulus 
of  mental  suggestion  is  indeed  a  benefit.  But 
to  check  the  mid-course  of  retributive  Law  by 
calling  it  a  lie,  is  to  incur  an  added  penalty. 
Man  is  eternal,  and,  even  should  disease  be 
forced  back  for  the  term  of  mortal  life,  three 
score  and  ten  years  are  but  an  infinitesimal 
curve  in  the  mighty  orbit  of  his  being.  The 
case  is,  in  result,  like  that  of  the  hardened  sin- 
ner whose  unbelief  in  retribution  holds  it  at  bay 
uotil  its  gathered  power  suddenly  overwhelms 
him. 

VI 

The  tenets  of  Christian  Science  had  origin  in 
an  madequate  philosophy  of  life.  Perceiving 
God  to  be  the  fount  of  Life,  Wisdom,  Love, 
Bliss,  and  all  else  beatific,  and  knowing  also 
that  sin,  misery,  and  death  are  on  every  side, 
Mrs.  Eddy  deemed  their  reality  incompatible 
with  God's  overruling.  To  make  Him  consist- 
ent   King   she    circumscribes    His   knowledge. 

35 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

She  holds  Him  ignorant  of  human  conditions, 
arguing  that  if  aware  He  would  not  permit. 

Defining  God  to  be  Love  and  Wisdom,  let  us 
attempt  the  largest  view  of  these,  a  view  de- 
void of  sentimentality. 

The  purest  human  love  has  a  taint  of  par- 
tiality. Far  above  the  sublimated  selfishness 
of  the  mother's  heart  towers  Divine  Love. 
All-wise,  it  knows  not  partiality  because  over- 
gift  to  one  is  robbery  of  all  others.  Necessarily 
it  is  Love-Wisdom  ;  it  is  rigid  Justice  ruling 
the  world. 

Grasping  this  idea,  one  is  not  misled  by 
appearances,  but  is  convinced  that  somehow 
Justice  is  dispensed  when  seemingly  most  trav- 
estied ;  and  that  even  unjust  men  are,  without 
excusing,  its  instruments.  Innumerable  judg- 
ments of  Justice,  in  their  execution,  appear  not 
to  the  eye,  nor  will  they  ever  to  any  human 
eye,  for  who  can  read  the  book  of  human  life 
and  so  unriddle  man's  hidden  doings  since  the 
beginning  of  mortal  mind  in  the  aeons  of  the 
past  ?  Who  can  read  the  balancing  of  action 
with  reaction  accomplished  and  now  being  ac- 
complished ?  Could  we  unravel  those  finer 
than  spider  films  of  cause  and  effect  which 
girdle  and  cover  the  globe,  we  should  see  Love, 
as  remedial  Justice,  triumphant  still,  and  the 
world,  despite  every  hindrance,  steadily  attain- 
ing ;  daily  nearer  that  "  One  far-off  divine 
event  to  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 
Then,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  declares,  every  object  in 

36 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

the  material  world  will  be  resolved  into  spirit- 
ual ideas. 

"  If  disease  can  attack  and  control  the  body 
without  the  consent  of  mortals,  sin  can  do  the 
same  for  both  are  errors."  This  reasonin^^:  is 
wrong  because  the  author's  theory  inhibits  her 
seeing  that  physical  suffering  is  one  of  the 
judgments  of  Justice  which  appears  not  always 
on  the  surface  of  life.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
universally  agreed  that  sin  has  no  control  over 
the  unconsenting. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "  Mind  is  not  subject  to 
growth  or  change."  In  the  same  connection 
she  asserts  that,  after  the  destruction  of  mortal 
mind,  the  real  man,  the  thought  of  God,  "is 
forever  unfolding  the  endless  beatitudes  of 
Being"  because  "Infinite  progression  is  con- 
crete Being."  Here,  as  often  elsewhere,  the 
author  fails  to  grasp  the  import  of  her  own 
statements.  Progress  and  unfolding  should 
not  be  predicated  of  Infinite  Thought.  Unlike 
limited  mortal  thought,  it  reasons  not  from 
cause  to  effect  ;  neither  does  it  unfold,  for  at 
once  it  encompasses  its  object.  To  the  child 
the  alphabet  is  but  a  succession  of  letters. 
These  to  the  adult  mean  the  printed  page.  To 
the  poet  they  signify  the  setting  forth  of  his 
fancy  ;  to  the  philosopher  the  amplification  of 
his  abstruse  theory  ;  to  the  scholar  the  compila- 
tion of  human  knowledge.  If  in  Christian 
Science  man  were  but  God's  creature,  then 
Divine   Wisdom  would  seem  to  unfold  as   he 

37 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

grows  toward  it,  but,  as  God's  thought,  he  is  at 
once  and  forever,  perfect  and  changeless. 

Our  would-be  teacher  saj^s,  ''  What  an  abuse 
of  natural  beauty  to  say  that  a  rose,  the  smile 
of  God,  can  produce  suffering  !  "  Apparently 
she  forgets  that  "  its  beauty  and  fragrance  which 
should  uplift  the  thought,  and  dissuade  any 
sense  of  fear  and  fever  ;  "  would  not  be  appre- 
hensible to  mortal  mind  if  not  as  much  its  cre- 
ation as  is  the  human  physical  body  ;  that 
which  painters  and  sculptors  pronounce  the 
acme  of  earthly  beauty. 

Mrs.  Eddy  writes,  *'  To  label  earthly  beauty 
nothing,  is  ignorantly  to  caricature  God's  crea- 
tion. In  our  immature  sense  of  spiritual  things 
let  us  say  of  the  beauties  of  the  sensuous  world, 
I  love  your  promise  ;  and  shall  know,  some- 
time, the  spiritual  reality  and  substance  of 
form,  light,  and  color  of  what  I  now  through 
you  discern  dimly."  The  above  is  an  acceptable 
statement  of  the  present  writer's  view  ;  but  this 
statement  is  not  founded  on  the  fundamentals 
of  Christian  Science,  a  structure  standing  for 
the  absolute  unlikeness  of  spiritual  and  mortal 
mind.  Surely  those  promises  of  Spiritual  Real- 
ity, the  beauties  of  the  sensuous  world,  are 
perceived  not  only  by  those  who  are  high- 
minded,  but  also  — though  less  vividly  because 
less  significant  to  them  —  by  the  morally 
depraved  who,  sunk  in  the  falsity  of  mortal 
mind,  should  not  see  them  at  all.  Mrs.  Eddy's 
statement,  turning  against  her,  argues  for  the 

38 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

present  writer's    claim   that    mortal  mind  and 
Spiritual  Mind  differ  in  degree  rather  than  kind. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "  God,  without  the  image  or 
likeness  of  Himself  would  be  a  nonentity,  a 
Mind  unexpressed.  God  would  be  without  a 
proof  of  His  own  nature.  Spiritual  man  is  the 
idea  of  God." 

Mind  being  the  Esse  of  God,  it  is  evident 
that  Mind  unexpressed,  an  unthinking  God,  is 
a  nonentity  ;  but,  after  thinking  from  eternity, 
God  is  All  ;  His  thought  has  created  nothing 
new  on  which  to  think.  Spiritual  man,  "the 
idea  of  God,"  is  consequently  God's  thought 
concerning  Himself.  We  have  shown  that  if 
God  is  All,  He  is  both  Thinker  and  Thought ; 
so  God  is  without  proof  of  His  own  nature. 
Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  God  is  Love,  but  as  God 
is  All,  His  Love  must  be  self-love,  the  very 
apotheosis  of  selfishness,  that  against  which 
every  true  teacher  has  declared. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "in  reproduction  the  order 
of  genus  and  species  is  preserved  throughout 
the  entire  round  of  nature.  This  points  to  the 
spiritual  truth  and  Science  of  being.  Error 
relies  upon  a  reversal  of  this  order,  asserts  that 
Spirit  produces  matter  ;  that  good  is  the  origin 
of  evil."  With  tiresome  reiteration  the  author 
of  "  Science  and  Health  "  would  emphasize  the 
utter  falsity  of  mortal  mind,  yet,  with  her  accus- 
tomed inconsistency,  she  here  employs  those 
creations  of  mortal  mind,  the  genus  and  species 
of  material  nature,  to  illustrate  the  Divine  order 

39 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

of  spiritual  creation  for  which,  according  to 
her  teaching,  these  have  been  substituted.  If 
mortal  mind  were  wholly  destitute  of  Truth,  it 
would  have  wrought  confusion  in  the  material 
world  by  producing  a  mineral  from  a  vegetable, 
or  even  a  man  from  a  brute.  Truth  and  utter 
falsity  never  move  parallel,  but  rather  in  oppo- 
site ways.  In  fact  Mrs.  Eddy's  argument  tends 
to  prove  the  material  the  veil  of  the  Spiritual. 

The  wise  Emerson,  our  Yankee  transcen- 
dental philosopher,  withal  the  hard-headed 
product  of  his  rock-based,  granite-hilled  New 
England,  following  his  own  advice  hitched  his 
waggon  to  a  star.  But  then  he  knew  the  nature 
of  stars,  and,  though  to  him,  **  everything  is 
made  of  one  hidden  stuff "  yet  the  material  star 
so  appeared  for  an  adequate  purpose.  Surely 
yonder  self-luminous  orbs  had  established  their 
heliocentric  motions,  and  the  harmonious  laws 
governing  therein,  aeons  before  this  earth  was 
v/hirled  from  its  molten  source.  The  obedient, 
well-guided  planets  ;  what  of  them  ?  What 
mystery  of  life,  not  wholly  unlike  our  own,  has 
recent  discovery  made  probable  ?  And  yet 
by  the  Christian  Scientist,  the  Astronomic 
Universe,  in  toto  and  in  parte,  is  held  to  be 
"  nothing  ;  "  in  other  words  it  is  Truth's  cunning 
counterfeit ;  it  is  the  conjuring  of  blind  untruth  ; 
it  is  the  vast  and  intricate  mechanism  con- 
structed by  error  from  the  fabric  of  its  own 
unenlightened  dream. 

Every  man  knows  of  his  neighbour,  as  of  him- 

40 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

self,  his  subjection  to  physical  conditions  not 
yet  surmounted  by  the  race.  The  telescope 
reveals  that  probably  our  Martian  neighbours 
struggle  to  maintain  physical  life  amidst  the 
hard  conditions  imposed  by  their  dying  world. 
This  much  tends  to  prove  the  error  of  mortal 
mind  not  limited  to  this  benighted  sphere. 
Also  it  would  indicate  that,  wherever  in  the 
spacial  deep  a  sun  has  warmed  his  worlds  to 
teeming  physical  life,  there,  as  here,  error  and 
Truth  are  bound  in  that  mysterious  dualism 
which  Christian  Science  thinks  to  disprove. 
From  all  this  we  may  conclude  that  when  Truth 
has  dissipated  that  phase  of  mortal  mind  which 
created  our  physical  planet,  she  has  conquered 
but  a  minute  fraction  of  the  material  universe. 

VII 

Though  to  the  founder  and  followers  of 
Eddyism,  it  towers  an  imposing  and  compre- 
hensive system,  it  does  not  so  appear  to  the 
present  writer.  He  ventures  that  if  this  pseudo 
philosophy  were  formulated  compactly,  its 
padded  bulk  would  shrink  to  that  of  one  of 
Emerson's  longer  essays.  Resting  on  those 
fundamentals,  the  allness  of  Divine  Mind,  and 
the  nothingness  of  matter,  Eddyism  cannot 
consistently  embrace  a  vast  and  minutely  elab- 
orated cosmogony  as  does  its  rival,  "  Modern 
Theosophy  "  as  promulgated  by  Madam  H.  P. 
Blavatsky.  Eddyism,  though  confined  to  its 
chosen  sphere,  attempts  therein  no  such  reve- 

41 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

lations  as  abound  in  the  writings  of  Swedenborg 
and  the  now  well-nigh  forgotten  "  Pough- 
keepsie  Seer,"  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  The 
illumination  of  Mrs.  Eddy  resulted  in  the  met- 
aphysics of  "  Mind,"  the  beginning,  middle  and 
end  of  her  message.  That  she  ignores  the 
material  is  a  serious  short-coming  as  will  pres- 
ently appear. 

Plato  held  that  the  phenomenal  world  of 
show,  the  world  of  flux  that  opposes  the  reality 
of  Divine  Substance,  originated  in  man's  lack 
of  spiritual  sight  wherefore  resulted  what  Leib- 
nitz calls  the  distortion  of  the  Image,  that 
which  Plato  named  the  Archetype  ;  the  Divine 
Idea  of  the  world  existing  in  the  thought  of 
the  Supreme  Architect.  Thus  the  Trinity  of 
Beauty,  Truth,  Good,  was  by  man  degraded 
into  its  opposite  ;  and  yet  to  the  Divine  Knower 
the  Archetype  remained  unchanged.  Thus 
understood,  Noumenon  and  phenomenon  are 
one,  and  nature's  vast  complexity,  that  web 
which  physical  science  hopes  yet  to  unravel, 
that  intelligent  though  far  from  All  Wise  total 
of  physical  laws,  originated  otherwhere  than  in 
the  vacuous  "  Nothing  "  of  Christian  Science. 

Because  an  idealist,  the  present  writer  ac- 
knowledges that  every  wonder  unearthed  in 
the  geological  strata  of  the  globe,  may  have 
existed  in  human  thought.  Moreover,  he 
admits  that  every  yet  undiscovered  material 
law,  however  marvelous,  was  formulated  by 
less  than  Divine    Ideation.     Nevertheless,    he 

42 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

argues  that  the  very  marvel  of  that  law  proves 
it  sourced  in  high  intelligence.  The  writer 
would  reiterate  that  whatever  is  devoid  of 
Truth  rises  not  above  chaos.  Therefore  the 
sequence  of  physical  law,  however  material, 
proves  an  intelligence  derived  from  a  higher. 

Applying  our  argument  we  find,  for  example, 
that  because  the  physical  law  limiting  the  term 
of  physical  life  has  ever,  without  miscarriage, 
been  executed  on  all  flesh  ;  therefore  that 
intelligent  law  must  have  originated  in  some 
imperative  law  known  unto  Him  who  from  the 
beginning  saw  the  culmination  of  Divine  Pur- 
pose. 

The  physicists  are  now  proclaiming  as  prob- 
able that  matter  is  a  manifestation  of  electrical 
energy  ;  that,  in  the  material  atoms,  the  revolv- 
ing electrons  make  rigid  and  apprehensible,  as 
suns  and  planets,  the  subtle  ether  of  space.  To 
illustrate  :  sufficient  momentum  in  a  column  of 
water  renders  it  rigid  as  iron  ;  a  swiftly  whirl- 
ing disk  of  soft  metal  cuts  the  hardest  plate 
steel.  If,  for  some  reason,  the  electrons  should 
change  their  rate  of  rotation,  the  density  of 
matter  would  be  correspondingly  effected,  and, 
should  these  become  inert,  then  matter  would 
disappear  in  its  substratum  of  supersensible 
ether. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  energy  exhibited  by 
the  electrons,  an  energy  absolutely  inconceiva- 
ble in  its  aggregate,  the  Christian  Scientist 
would  call  it  mortal  mind  ;  the  Idealist  calling 

43 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

it  mind  would  hold  this  mind  to  be  at  least 
intelligent,  and  probably  far  more  endowed 
than  any  manifested  by  the  inhabitants  of  our 
planet.  To  disintergrate  and  dissipate  matter 
requires  something  more  than  mere  denial.  A 
profound  knowledge  of  the  mysterious  law 
governing  the  motion  of  the  electrons  is 
necessary. 

Mrs.  Eddy  holds  that  the  body  should  be 
kept  pure  by  mind  rather  than  by  washing,  and 
so  the  daily  ablutions  of  the  infant  are  unneces- 
sary. She  inquires,  '*  Is  civilization  only  a 
higher  form  of  idolatry,  that  man  should  bow 
down  to  a  flesh-brush,  to  flannels,  to  baths,  diet, 
exercise,  and  air  ?"  If  her  philosophy  is  indeed 
true,  then  utter  neglect  of  what  civilization 
deems  indispensable  hygiene  may  benefit  the 
"Scientist,"  but  if,  as  here  contended,  this  phi- 
losophy rests  on  falsity,  what  then  ?  Why,  a 
sinking  to  the  condition  of  the  cave-dweller, 
the  simple  life  with  a  vengeance.  Let  us  hope 
that  a  saving  sense  of  the  ridiculous  will  deter 
the  "  Scientist"  from  demonstrating  that  filth 
and  godliness  are  in  any  way  related. 

•'  Science  and  Health  "  teaches  "  that  genera- 
tion rests  on  no  sexual  basis."  The  meaning 
is  that  if  mortal  belief  had  not  made  necessary 
the  male,  then  conception  would  occur  from  the 
fecundation  of  thought  alone.  It  is  absurd  to 
contend  that  the  error  of  procreation  causes 
the  pure,  wise  and  sexless  man  to  fall  into  the 
dream  of  prenatal  condition  and  physical  birth, 

44 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

for  *'  man   is   as   perfect    as    the    Mind   which 
formed  him." 

Because  the  Christian  Scientist  denies  that 
the  heavenly  man  could  so  fall,  the  question 
arises,  What  dreamer  did  fall  into  mortal  mind 
and  its  dream  ?  Evidently  a  denial  of  all  rela- 
tion between  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  man 
is  the  dooming  of  that  earthly  man.  If  a  self- 
existing  error,  he  cannot  emerge  from  matter 
into  spirit  because  in  that  case  no  bridge  exists 
between  these  two.  For  the  earthly  man  the 
most  materialistic  philosophy  results  in  no 
more  complete  extinction. 

Inasmuch  as  Christian  Science  teaches  that 
the  real  man  is  wholly  outside  and  independent 
of  the  physical  body,  therefore  of  the  carnal 
man  it  is  evident  that  his  faculties  and  mem- 
bers do  but  the  bidding  of  mortal  mind  within. 
Lofty  thoughts  and  noble  deeds  proceed  neces- 
sarily from  the  exterior,  real  man  who  only 
seems  to  act  through  the  physical  which,  from 
the  viewpoint  of  "Truth,"  is  fading  into  the 
nothingness  from  which  it  sprung. 

By  the  elaborators  of  the  Vedanta  Philosophy, 
and  also  by  the  great  sages  of  India,  it  was 
deemed  consistent  with  Divine  Wisdom  to 
uplift  rather  than  destroy  the  mortal  man.  In 
Hindoo  Philosophy,  the  bodily  appetites  and 
passions  are  physical  manifestations  of  eternal 
forces.  That  which  would  debase  the  mortal 
is  the  soiled  insignia  of  its  worth.  Although 
the  eternal  energies  in  man  can  be  brutalized, 

45 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

assuredly  they  are  transmutable  into  every 
beatific  virtue  ;  and  for  this  end  alone  they 
exist.  Man  is  the  young  Hercules  of  divine 
paternity,  but  born  of  Alcmene,  or  Mary,  or 
Maya,  —  born  of  illusion  the  earth-mother. 
Trials  many  and  sore  must  test  his  every  fibre 
ere  he  as  conqueror  can  fill  his  place  where 
sit  the  immortal  ones. 

Back  in  the  fifth  century,  Nestorius  was  hum- 
bled from  his  bishopric  and  banished  to  the 
Libyan  desert  because  forsooth  he  taught  that 
while  Christ  is  unborn  and  eternal,  Jesus  was 
but  mortal.  Christian  Science  has  revived  and 
in  this  twentieth  century  is  teaching  that  ancient 
theory. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "There  never  was,  is  not 
now,  and  never  can  be  but  one  Jesus  of 
Nazareth."  Mrs.  Eddy's  explanation  of  the 
Immaculate  Birth  is  a  bit  of  transcendentalism 
worthy  of  the  pen  of  Madam  Blavatsky.  In 
the  unity  of  Immortal  Mind,  the  Father-Mother 
God,  dwells  from  eternity  the  Christ  Principle, 
Truth,  Life,  Love.  In  a  moment  of  exaltation, 
Mary,  rising  above  all  error  of  mortal  mind, 
conceived  the  Christ  as  a  pure  idea  to  which 
her  purest  mortal  love,  that  of  the  mother  for 
her  babe,  gave  the  form  of  the  infant  Jesus 
within  the  womb.  Therefore  Jesus,  The  Christ, 
is  both  human  and  divine. 

In  this  teaching  of  Christian  Science,  the  old 
belief  is  reversed.  Christ  descended  not  to 
Mary,  but  Mary,  ascending  to  Christ,  brought 

46 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Jesus  to  earth  and  Christ  into  relation  with  the 
flesh.  As  an  explanation  —  not  necessarily  a 
solution  —  of  a  mystery  of  Orthodox  Christian- 
ity, this  theory  is  ingenious  as  any  devisable  ; 
but,  in  a  world  of  one  God  and  many  Marys, 
the  question  might  be  asked,  Why  can  there 
never  be  but  one  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ?  Let  us 
discover  the  Christian  Science  answer. 

It  was  woman,  because  of  her  greater  spirit- 
uality, that,  in  the  person  of  Mary,  rose  to  the 
conception  of  Life,  Truth,  Love.  Again  it  was 
woman,  a  later  Mary,  that  attained  to  the  per- 
fect vision,  the  which  she  gave  to  the  world, 
not  as  in  any  wise  the  fruit  of  her  body,  but  as 
the  fruit  of  her  enlightened  mind  because  Jesus, 
having  passed  the  gates  of  mortal  birth  and 
death,  destroyed  forever  the  error  of  his  mortal 
body.  This  then,  is  the  second  coming  by 
Christ  himself  foretold;  the  incorporal  presence 
of  Christ  Jesus  who  judges  sin,  and,  by  means 
of  the  Word,  the  Holy  Ghost,  Divine  Science, 
condemns  it  to  the  abyss  of  nothingness. 

The  above,  though  not  formulated  in  "  Sci- 
ence and  Health,"  is  there  between  the  lines, 
and  gives  the  true  status  of  "Mother  Mary" 
with  the  enlightened  of  her  cult. 

A  century  and  a  half  before  the  discovery  of 
Divine  Science,  the  seer  Emanuel  Swedenborg 
proclaimed  the  second  coming  as  the  Word  of 
which  John  writes,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and 
the  Word  was  God."     Swedenborg  interpreted 

47 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

the  Word  to  mean  Divine  Truth  as  found  in  the 
teachings  of  "The  New  Church."  He  says, 
•'  It  is  evident  that  the  Lord  will  now  appear  in 
the  Word.  The  reason  he  will  not  appear 
in  person  is,  because  since  his  ascension  he  is  in 
his  glorified  humanity,  and  so  cannot  appear  to 
any  man  unless  the  eyes  of  his  spirit  be  first 
opened." 

In  all  history,  only  two  women  attained  unto 
an  idea  of  the  Christ  Principle,  but,  by  a 
supreme  effort  of  highest  mortal  mind,  the  first 
of  these  carnalized  that  principle  to  a  child 
within  her  womb.  The  logical  result  of  this  is 
an  esoteric  teaching,  one  of  the  beautiful  truths 
of  which  Christian  Science  has  many.  By  a 
supreme  effort  of  mortal  mind  it  is  possible  for 
women  to  subvert  the  universal  belief  in  the 
obtaining  method  of  human  generation,  and  so 
counterfeit  and  carnalize  the  heavenly  man  to  a 
mortal  embryo.  This  leads  into  another  beau- 
tiful truth  prudently  kept  in  the  background. 
It  is  this.  Of  malicious  animal  magnetism, — 
m.  a.  m.  to  those  who  dare  not  speak  the  name 
in  full  —  it  is  possible  that,  wielded  by  an  adept 
in  the  black  art,  it  can  throw  upon  some  sus- 
ceptible victim  the  condition  of  pregnancy  so 
that  the  unconsenting  mother  will  bear  a  demon 
in  human  form. 

To  discover  the  effect  of  perverted  beliefs  on 
those  who  hold  them,  need  we  turn  to  darkest 
Africa  and  the  degraded  dupes  of  her  witch 
doctors  ?     Need  we  turn  to  that  damnable  her- 

48 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

itage  of  Hayti,  Voodooism  and  its  grovelling 
slaves  ?  No  indeed,  because,  for  abject  imbe- 
cile fear,  we  need  but  turn  to  Mr.  Eddy  contin- 
ually beset  on  every  side  by  malign  influences, 
and  whose  death,  it  was  claimed,  was  due  to 
arsenic  mentally  administered.  We  need  but 
turn  to  the  high  priestess  herself  and  the  imag- 
inary deeds  of  her  disgruntled  healers  ;  and, 
lastly,  to  the  foolish  precautions  surrounding 
her  removal  from  Concord  to  Newton. 

Now  what  is  the  hidden  but  sufficient  cause 
of  a  superstitious  dread  almost  incredible  to 
the  world  at  large  ?  Surely  it  is  the  belief 
that  evil  and  not  God  rules  this  lowly  earth  of 
ours.  Of  black  magic  Madam  Blavatsky 
taught  many  wierd  things,  but  then  she  also 
taught  that  humanity  is  surrounded  by  mighty, 
invisible  guardians.  However  this  may  be, 
reader,  rest  assured  that  if  you  and  I  believe 
the  Infinite  God  in  His  Heaven  upholds  in  His 
everlasting  arms  these  finite  conditions,  then, 
seeking  to  conform  to  the  right,  we  may  laugh 
to  scorn  the  peculiar  besettings  which  so  cruelly 
torment  the  Eddyite.  God's  ruling  may  little 
agree  with  our  poor  notion  of  wisdom  and 
justice,  but  let  the  world  be  abandoned,  only 
for  a  day,  to  the  caprices  of  mortal  mind,  and 
no  hell  within  the  imagination  of  a  Dante 
would  equal  the  resulting  horror. 


49 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 
VIII 

A  number  of  advanced  "Scientists"  are  re- 
sponsible for  certain  beliefs  concerning  their 
leader.  These  beliefs  are  logical  in  the  premise, 
and  so  are  not  attacked  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  watch 
dogs  who  meanwhile  pounce  upon  and  rend  any 
error  from  without  the  sheepfold.  Bearing  in 
mind  that  Jesus  alluded  to  the  coming  of  a  fuller 
revelation  of  Truth,  these  esoteric  disciples 
afifirm  that  because  Mrs.  Eddy  has  conceived 
from  both  the  Fatherhood  and  Motherhood 
of  God,  she  is  necessarily  the  superior  of  the 
first  Mary  who  conceived  only  from  God's 
Fatherhood.  Moreover,  the  wholly  spiritual 
birth  of  Christian  Science  is  superior  to  that  of 
old  in  that  Jesus  himself  was  mortal.  Again, 
the  mortal  Mrs.  Eddy  may  be  superior  to  the 
mortal  Jesus  since,  being  a  woman,  she  is  over- 
coming materiality  and  assimilating  herself  to 
God  through  a  knowledge  not  only  of  His 
Fatherhood,  as  revealed  by  Jesus,  but  also 
through  a  knowledge  of  that  which  is  even 
higher,  the  Divine  Motherhood. 

These  belittlers  of  Jesus  should  first  prove 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  Divine  Mother- 
hood. Certainly  that  knowledge  originated  in 
no  wise  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  nor  with  the  disciples 
of  Mother  Ann  Lee,  nor  yet  with  Theodore 
Parker  who  in  prayer  addressed  God's  Father- 
hood and  Motherhood  as  one.  Antedating  the 
Christian  Era,  that  knowledge  is  old  as  India 

50 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

where  Mind  was  the  male  and  Love  the  female 
principle  which  in  manifestation  became  the 
Father-Mother  of  the  worlds.  Likewise,  that 
knowledge  was  expressed  by  the  Egyptian  Isis 
and  Osiris  and  their  Divine  Child,  Horus,  alle- 
gorically  pictured  in  the  arms  of  his  mother  the 
radiant,  star-diademed  Queen  of  Heaven  ;  while 
there  behind  them  gloomed  the  cross  of  matter, 
the  foreshadowing  of  sacrifice  ;  that  mysteri- 
ous self-limiting,  that  sublime  self-humbling, 
that  wondrous  and  far  down-reaehing  which  is 
the  central  theme  and  very  life  of  world-inspir- 
ing beliefs. 

Yes  indeed  !  sacrifice  is  the  supreme  exam- 
ple which  has  ever  stirred,  and  forever  will,  the 
noblest  souls  to  emulation.  In  one  of  the  great 
religions  the  compelling  idea  is  the  self-limita- 
tion and  consequent  sacrifice  whereby  the  Un- 
manifested  Logos,  issuing  from  Absolute  Light, 
which  to  man  is  absolute  darkness,  becomes  the 
Manifested  and  Creative  Word.  The  physical 
sun  is  now  His  outward  appearance,  the  Spirit- 
ual Sun  His  Essence.  From  these  are  poured 
physical  and  spiritual  life  to  His  progeny  the 
worlds  that  those  therein  may  develop  to  His 
likeness  and,  finally,  with  perfected  self-con- 
sciousness, be  updrawn  to  Para  Nirvana  which 
is  Himself. 

In  all  ancient  religions  was  performed  the 
exoteric  sacrifice  of  the  altar,  suited  to  peoples 
not  yet  come  into  a  knowledge  of  true,  heart 
sacrifice.     Christian   Science  lacks  the   Divine 

51 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

example  of  self-humbling  and  down-reaching, 
for  how  can  Truth  stoop  to  what  for  it  is  non- 
existent ?  The  mortal  Jesus,  representing  the 
highest  phase  of  mortal  mind,  did  of  himself 
attain  to  the  Christ  Principle  with  which  he  was 
associated  in  his  unique  birth. 

Human  motherhood  results  in  more  or  less 
of  parturition  pain  which  is  followed  by  that 
self-limiting  whereby  the  mother  narrows  the 
circle  of  her  life  for  her  dependent  offspring. 
Meanwhile,  the  father  must  provide  for  the 
many  that  now  look  to  him.  The  Divine 
Motherhood  is  sacrifice,  but  infinitely  higher 
than  that  of  the  human  mother,  while  its  influ- 
ence descends  to  mothers  of  less  than  human 
kind.  Having  misunderstood  the  Divine  Fa- 
therhood, Mrs.  Eddy  has  of  necessity  miscon- 
ceived the  Divine  Motherhood. 

Of  no  religionist  can  it  be  expected  that  he 
rise  higher  than  the  ideals  of  his  belief  ;  there- 
fore the  Christian  Scientist,  having  promulgated 
gratuitously  his  '*  beautiful  truth,"  and  having 
demonstrated  over  a  few  sick  folk  unable  to 
pay,  feels  not  further  the  imperative  call  to  sac- 
rifice which  has  swayed  the  noblest  disciples  of 
Jesus  and  Buddha.  To  heal  the  sick,  raise  the 
dead,  and  cast  out  devils  is,  in  his  opinion,  a 
benefit  for  which  he  should  ask  remuneration  ; 
and  yet,  among  the  followers  of  a  religion 
which  he  deems  wholly  false,  are  men  and 
women,  in  both  the  East  and  this  our  Western 
world,  who  have  vowed  to  labor  for  humanity 

52 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

while  the  Earth  endures.  Never  will  they  enter 
into  final  peace  until  all  beings  are  brought  into 
harmony  with  the  good  Law. 

An  uncompromising  follower  of  the  Master, 
Count  Leo  Tolstoi  has  for  many  years  preached 
to  the  world  the  gospel  of  non-resistance  to 
evil.  In  his  interpretation  of  those  sayings  of 
Jesus  in  which  the  Society  of  Friends  also  find 
the  command  to  keep  peace  with  all  men,  Tol- 
stoi may  be  an  extremist.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  American  public  has  long  laughed  at  the 
absurd  spectacle  of  a  woman  speaking  with 
authority,  and  denying  in  the  name  of  the  Mas- 
ter the  reality  of  evil,  while,  in  her  own  name, 
and  for  her  own  pecuniary  interests,  fighting  it 
strenuously  and  often  in  the  civil  courts. 

In  a  brief  work,  "  Unity  of  Good,"  Mrs.  Eddy 
says,  "  Man  is  the  generic  term  for  all  human- 
ity. Woman  is  the  highest  species  of  Man."  In 
"  Science  and  Health"  we  read,  "The  ideal  man 
corresponds  to  creation,  to  Intelligence  and 
Truth.  The  ideal  woman  corresponds  to  Life 
and  Love.  We  have  not  as  much  authority,  in 
Divine  Science,  for  considering  God  masculine, 
as  we  have  for  considering  Him  feminine,  for 
Love  imparts  the  highest  idea  of  Deity."  "  Sci- 
ence and  Health"  thus  defines  Intelligence, 
''Substance;  self-existent  and  Eternal  Mind." 

Having  assigned  to  Love  a  place  higher  than 
that  of  Eternal  Mind,  and  also  Truth,  Mrs. 
Eddy  says  that  because  woman  corresponds  to 
Love,  Eve  was  first  to  confess  and  abandon  her 

53 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

fault,  "The  belief  in  the  material  origin  of  man." 
She  was  first  '*  to  discern  spiritual  creation. 
This  hereafter  enabled  woman  to  be  the  mother 
of  Jesus,  and  to  behold  at  the  sepulchre  the 
risen  Saviour.  This  enabled  woman  to  be  first 
to  interpret  the  Scriptures  in  their  true  sense, 
which  reveals  the  idea  of  God  as  Love." 

Of  Eve's  exclamation  at  the  birth  of  Cain,  "  I 
have  gotten  a  man  from  the  Lord."  Mrs.  Eddy 
says,  "This  supposes  God  to  be  the  author  of 
sin  and  sin's  progeny."  So,  after  all.  Eve  had 
not  abandoned  her  fault. 

Evidently  the  argument  that  Love  is  the 
highest  attribute  of  God,  contains  the  personal 
plea  of  the  discoverer  of  Divine  Science  ;  but 
will  the  argument  hold  water  ?  God  is  perfect, 
therefore  His  attributes  are  those  of  perfection, 
to  wit,  perfect  attributes.  To  maintain  that 
Love  is  higher  than  Truth  is  to  limit  Truth  and 
to  limit  God  through  His  Truth.  Hence  God 
being  perfect,  His  attributes  admit  of  no  grada- 
tion ;  each  is  equal  of  the  others.  Thus  man 
is  the  equal  of  woman  ;  a  conclusion  in  accord 
with  common  sense  if  not  with  Christian  Sci- 
ence which  is  itself  a  religion  of  Love  divorced 
from  Truth  ;  a  one-sided  religion,  a  solution  of 
life's  enigmas  wholly  from  the  standpoint  of 
woman.  It  is  a  religion  inadequate  as  those 
hard,  cruel  creeds  wherein  men,  seeking  for 
Truth,  divorced  it  from  Love  and  so  gave  to 
the  world  man's  reading  of  the  riddle  ;  a  one- 
sided religion  from  which  the  inmost  heart  of 

54 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

woman  shrank,  however  much  she  stultified  her 
mind  and  bowed  her  head  in  meek  submission. 

Many  simple  souls  have  mildly  blamed  the 
Apostle,  deeming  that  he  damaged  the  cause  of 
temperance  by  his  words  to  Timothy,  "use  a 
little  wine  for  thy  stomach's  sake."  Now,  at 
last,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  exonerated  Paul  and 
showed  his  wisdom,  for  in  the  text  wine  means 
understanding.  Evidently,  Divine  Science  was 
the  remedy  advised  for  Timothy's  often  infirm- 
ities. 

Mrs.  Eddy  sometimes  dwarfs  and  even  per- 
verts a  spiritual  conception  by  conforming  it  to 
a  physical  law  ;  for  example,  "  Life  is  the  Cre- 
ator reflected  in  his  creation.  If  he  dwell 
within  what  he  creates,  God  would  not  be 
reflected  but  absorbed,  and  the  science  of  Being 
would  be  forever  lost."  In  this  antithesis  of 
Swedenborg's  doctrine  of  Divine  influx,  the 
conception  of  a  mental  reflection  is  taken  from 
the  physical  law  of  optics.  Physical  light  is 
reflected  from  the  exterior  of  such  bodies  as 
there  intercept  and  turn  back  the  rays  of  the 
sun.  Physical  light  entering  opaque  bodies  is 
therein  quenched  and  lost.  The  originator  of 
Christian  Science  should  know  that  the  laws  of 
spiritual  light  transcend  those  of  physical  light. 
Spiritual  light  is  reflected  from  the  interior 
rather  than  the  exterior  of  God-encompassed 
man. 

In  her  strictures  on  '*  Spiritualism "  Mrs. 
Eddy   is   a   trifle    dogmatic.     "  The    so-called 

55 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

dead  and  living  cannot  communicate  together 
for  they  are  in  separate  states  of  existence  or 
consciousness."  From  the  position  of  ideal- 
ism, the  universe  is  divided  into  states  or  planes 
of  consciousness.  Sight,  hearing,  touch,  taste 
and  smell  limit  the  normal  entity  to  his  partic- 
ular plane.  Passage  to  another  is  affected  by 
the  deadening  in  him  of  these  senses  and  the 
wakening  of  those  which  correspond  to  that 
plane.  Some  idiosyncrasy  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem enables  the  "  medium  "  to  accomplish  this. 
Nevertheless,  a  worthy  and  progressing  entity 
would  ere  long  gravitate  to  conditions  quite 
out  of  touch  with  any  medium. 

IX 

Greek  and  Hebrew  scholars  are  now  making 
havoc  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  derivation  and  meaning 
of  certain  Scriptural  proper  names.  This  is 
indeed  unfortunate,  for,  on  that  derivation  and 
meaning,  are  based  some  of  her  pet  theories. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  given  to  the  world  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  Scriptures.  Necessarily  that 
interpretation  is  Christian  Science,  for  which 
Christianity  has  waited  these  nineteen  hundred 
years. 

More  than  a  century  earlier  than  Mrs.  Eddy, 
Swedenborg,  speaking  as  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  Lord,  attributed  to  the  Bible  texts  a  mean- 
ing quite  at  variance  with  this  latest  religion  of 
Truth.  Choosing  from  the  writings  of  these 
two,  let  us  place  side  by  side  a  few  examples 

56 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

of  their  exposition  of  both  Genesis  and  the 
Apocalypse. 

Swedenborg  assures  the  world  that  "  the  spir- 
itual sense  of  the  Word  was  never  discovered 
until  now."  "Adam  and  his  wife  mean  the 
most  ancient  church."  "Eden  means  the  wis- 
dom of  the  men  of  that  church."  Mrs.  Eddy's 
definition  of  Adam  is  "Error;  a  falsity;  the 
belief  in  'original  sin,'  sickness  and  death." 
Eve  means  "  a  beginning ;  mortality ;  finite 
belief."  "  Eden  stands  for  the  mortal,  material 
body."  The  mighty,  descending  angel  of  the 
first  and  second  verse  of  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Revelation  is,  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  Divine  Science  ; 
"  the  right  foot  or  dominion  power  of  which 
was  upon  the  sea,  upon  elemental  error,  the 
source  of  error's  visible  forms."  "  The  left  foot 
was  upon  the  earth,  that  is  a  secondary  power 
was  exercised  upon  visible  error."  The  little 
book  in  his  hand  is,  of  course,  "  Science  and 
Health  "  of  which  she  says,  "  Then  will  a  voice 
from  harmony  cry,  '  Go  and  take  the  little 
book.  Take  it  and  eat  it  up.  Take  Divine  Sci- 
ence. Read  it  from  beginning  to  end.'  "  Swe- 
denborg explains  that  the  angel  signifies  the 
Lord  in  Divine  Majesty  and  Power,  and  the  lit- 
tle book  contains  the  teachings  of  the  church 
of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

The  Woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the 
moon  under  her  feet  and  upon  her  head  a  crown 
of  twelve  stars,  Rev.  XII,  1,  typifies,  in  Chris- 
tian Science,  generic  man  ;  she  also  typifies  the 

57 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

spiritual  idea  of  God's  Motherhood.  Spirit  is 
indicated  by  the  sun  ;  matter  by  the  moon 
under  her  feet.  "The  spiritual  idea  crowned 
with  twelve  stars"  signifies  that,  'nhe  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel,  with  all  mortals,  will  through 
much  tribulation  yield  to  the  activities  of  the 
divine  Principle  of  man  in  the  harmony  of  Sci- 
ence." To  Swedenborg,  a  woman  clothed  with 
the  sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  "signi- 
fies the  Lord's  New  Church  in  the  heavens, 
which  is  the  new  heaven,  and  the  Lord's  New 
Church  about  to  be  upon  the  earth,  which  is 
the  New  Jerusalem."  And  upon  her  head  a 
crown  of  twelve  stars,  "  signifies  the  church's 
wisdom  and  intelligence  from  knowledge  of 
divine  good  and  divine  truth  derived  from  the 
Word." 

Verse  2.  "And  she  being  with  child,  cried 
travailing  in  birth,  and  pained  to  be  delivered," 
signifies  the  doctrine  of  the  New  Church  about 
to  come  forth.  Its  difficult  reception  is  indica- 
ted by  the  dragon  described  in  Verse  3.  Ac- 
cording to  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  spiritual  idea  is 
symbolized  by  a  woman  in  travail  waiting  to 
be  delivered  of  her  "  sweet  promise,"  Christian 
Science.  The  dragon  symbolizes  human  error, 
in  fact,  all  that  opposes  Christian  Science. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says  of  the  city  that  lieth  four- 
square, and  Cometh  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven,  that  "  it  represents  the  light  and  glory 
of  Christian  Science.  The  four  sides  of  our 
city   are   the   Word,    Christ,    Christianity,    and 

58 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

divine  Science."  Swedenborg  calls  the  holy 
city  the  New  Church,  *'  four-square  because  a 
quadrangle  signifies  what  is  just.  By  length  is 
signified  the  good  of  that  church,  and  by  breadth 
its  truth.  When  good  and  truth  are  equal  thv:re 
exists  what  is  just." 

According  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  "  The  Lamb's  wife 
represents  the  unity  of  male  and  female  as  no 
longer  two  married  individuals,  but  as  two  indi- 
vidual natures  in  one,  and  reflecting  God  as 
Father-Mother."  According  to  Swedenborg, 
the  Lamb's  wife  is  "the  Lord's  New  Church 
which  is  the  New  Jerusalem." 

What  are  we  to  understand  from  the  above  ? 
Do  not  these  widely  different  interpretations 
argue  an  earthly  and  sufficient  hindrance  to  any 
full  attainment  of  human  thought  ?  Always 
the  artist,  however  heavenward-looking,  paints 
but  the  idealized  scene  of  earth.  Always  the 
sculptor  of  Jove  and  Apollo  and  Venus,  but 
symmetrizes  the  human  form.  Always  the 
poet,  however  skyward-imaginative,  is  first  a 
mortal  dependent  upon  human  experience  ;  nor 
can  he,  in  his  most  ethereal  fancy,  wholly  di- 
vorce the  mundane  from  the  celestial.  This 
taint  of  mortal  mind  is  evident  in  the  visions  of 
revelators  like  St.  John  and  Mohammed  and 
Swedenborg.  It  makes  insecure  the  founda- 
tions of  every  system  of  correspondence  down 
to  the  days  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  has  more  or  less 
misshaped  the  result  of  every  speculative  phi- 
losophy, and  it  has  rendered  disappointing  the 

59 


THE    SOPHISTRIES 

product  of  man's  persistent  groping  in  the 
regions  of  the  unknown. 

Idealistic  Monism  has  been  the  dream  of  the 
Idealist  and  the  Mystic.  Down  the  ages,  the 
chief  thinkers  of  this  class  have,  without  flinch- 
ing, faced  the  outcome  of  their  reasoning,  spec- 
ulation and  intuition.  To  the  Buddhist  and  the 
Brahmin,  every  man,  every  creature,  is  the  in- 
carnation of  Ishwara,  the  Master.  In  the  Pla- 
tonic theory,  matter  is  in  fact  the  objectivised 
divine  Idea,  "  the  other  "  which  in  ceaseless  be- 
coming would  reunite  with  "  the  same,"  the 
sole  Reality.  In  the  Pantheistic  scheme  of 
Spinoza,  both  man  and  universal  nature  are 
the  ever-fluctuating  phenomena  of  the  one  un- 
knowable Substance.  To  Leibnitz,  the  human 
monad,  and  every  lesser,  every  least,  is  the 
microcosm  of  the  Macrocosm.  In  the  Subjec- 
tive Idealism  of  Fichte,  the  ego  and  the  non- 
ego  shall  eventuate  in  union;  the  consciousness 
of  man  must  yet  embrace  the  totality  of  Being. 
Penetrating  the  secret  of  Hegel,  behold  again 
that  esoteric  Ideal  which  animated  the  sage 
and  the  seer  beside  the  Ganges  and  the  Nile; 
to  wit,  the  evolving  consciousness  of  the  many 
ever-ascending,  ever  attaining  to  the  Absolute, 
the  Divine  Unity. 

Posing  as  a  discoverer  of  Truth,  Mrs.  Eddy, 
in  her  monism,  really  harks  back  to  the  infancy 
of  Greek  philosophy.  Her  metaphysical  con- 
ception and  reasoning  is  akin  to  that  of  Par- 
menides,    the    foremost   representative    of   the 

60 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Eleatic  School.  Dealinn^  with  the  idea  of  pure, 
indivisible  Being;  timeless,  spaceless,  omni- 
present Thought,  Parmenides  regards  all  else 
as  nothing.  In  his  exposition,  cast  in  form  of 
an  epic  poem,  he  discourses  first  from  the 
standpoint  of  Truth;  then,  in  turn,  mortal 
opinion  affims  belief  in  the  material. 

The  successors  of  Parmenides,  Plato  espe- 
cially, saw  what  he  himself  had  overlooked,  to 
wit,  the  material  can  find  no  place  in  human 
conception  if  wholly  apart  from  the  one  Real- 
ity; therefore  the  ability  to  argue  against  the 
material  is  proof  of  its  relatedness  to  Spirit. 

Failing  to  profit  by  the  mistake  of  the  Elea- 
tics,  the  "Scientist"  first  calls  material  condi- 
tions an  erroneous  belief,  then,  if  hard-pressed, 
he  will  deny  the  existence  of  false  belief  though 
in  the  very  act  of  arguing  with  one  who  disputes 
his  interpretation  of  Truth.  If  rallied  on  the 
absurdity  of  his  contention,  then  will  be,  from 
a  position  beyond  the  reach  of  argument,  rejoin 
that  he  speaks  in  the  new  tongue,  unknown  to 
those  who  differ  from  him,  that  Truth  which 
transcends  the  ratiocination  of  mortal  mind 
whose  every  axiom  may  be  utterly  false  in  the 
light  of  ''Truth,"  for,  to  use  the  language  of  a 
brother  "Scientist,"  "In  our  limited  sense  of  in- 
telligence we  have  ignorantly  endowed  the 
mortal,  material  mind  with  power  to  think."  This 
abject  subordination  of  reason  to  revelation 
identifies  the  Eddyite  with  the  most  unyielding 
religious  bigots  of  the  past.     Alas  for  the  free- 

61 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

dom  of  human  thought!  Alas  for  the  progress 
of  world-enlightenment  if,  down  the  ages,  such 
as  these  had  had  their  undisputed  rule! 

The  ill-equipped  discoverer,  both  in  physics 
and  metaphysics,  may  unwittingly  expend  his 
energies  on  problems  already  solved,  and  so  it 
happens  that  a  defunct  theory  of  spirit  and 
matter  is  revived  and  rehabilitated  in  these 
days  of  universal  truth-seeking.  That  in  defence 
of  this  theory,  men  and  women  of  at  least  aver- 
age intellectual  endowment  will  calmly  stultify 
their  God-given  reason  is  no  wise  laughable,  as 
may  at  first  seem,  but  rather  is  it  lamentable 
for  it  betrays  the  heart-hunger  of  those  who  will, 
at  any  cost,  have  the  spiritual  food  of  Truth. 

X 

Inasmuch  as  certain  prominent  "Scientists" 
have  undertaken  to  bolster  Mrs.  Eddy's  doc- 
trines with  the  great  name  of  Immanuel  Kant, 
it  may  be  well  to  inquire  concerning  those  con- 
clusions of  his  Philosophy  which  are  said  to 
coincide  with  Christian  Science. 

In  "The  Kritik  of  Pure  Reason"  Kant  dis- 
covers and  proves  that  perception  of  both  time 
and  space  is  a  priori  in  human  sense;  also,  that 
certain  pure  intelligent  notions  of  the  logical 
judgment,  from  which  are  derived  the  twelve 
Kantian  categories,  are  h  priori  in  human  under- 
standing. Were  it  not  for  the  notions,  and  their 
categories,  the  world  would  be  a  mere  chaos, 
for  the  peculiar  province  of  the  categories  is  to 

62 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

synthesize  and  shape,  in  time  and  space,  the 
manifold  sensations  which  the  impact  of  exter- 
nal objects,  or  of  what,  because  of  the  categories, 
we  call  objects,  produces  in  the  mind. 

Kant  posits  a  Noumenon,  a  "Thing-in-itself," 
an  Archetype  with  power  to  move  the  pure  will 
to  duty  although  that  Archetype  exists  beyond 
man's  a  priori  sense  perception  of  time  and 
space,  and,  therefore,  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
moulding  categories.  The  process  whereby  the 
categories  unify  and  mould  perception  is  a 
complicated  one  notwithstanding  its  ease  and 
instantaneousness;  but  the  mind  which  employs 
the  categories,  the  mind  which  Kant  analyzes 
exhaustively,  is  finite,  and  its  knowledge  he 
would  limit  to  phenomena.  His  contention  is 
that  hitherto  metaphysicians  have  claimed  the 
mind's  ability,  through  the  categories,  to  reach 
the  Noumenon.  Now  if  the  sage  of  Konigsberg 
had  deemed  finite  mind,  with  all  its  involved 
procedure,  the  nonentity  of  the  "Scientist,"  he 
would  hardly  have  made  so  much  ado  about 
nothing  as  "The  Kritik  of  Pure  Reason"  con- 
tains. 

The  bulk  of  the  Kantian  metaphysic  is  based 
on  the  notions  which  are  held  to  be  the  original 
furniture  of  the  mind.  But  from  whence  was 
the  mind  thus  endowed?  Material  philosophy 
denies  such  endowment,  therefore  Kant,  in  his 
reconciliation  of  all  schools,  at  once  identifies 
himself  with  Idealism  which  claims  that  the 
a  priori  notions  resulting  in  phenomena,  are  in 

63 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

some  way  related  to  the  Noumenon,  the  "Thing- 
in-itself,"  for  phenomena  pre-supposes  Noume- 
non as  their  source.  Phenomena  are,  in  fact, 
the  faint,  distorted  impressions  of  Reality  which 
Noumenon  conveys  to  mind  hampered  by 
matter.  And  yet  the  fact  that  finite  mind  cog- 
nizes even  this  poor  showing  is  proof  that 
Truth  exists,  and  who  dares  gainsay  that  evolv- 
ing finite  mind  shall  sometime  know  that  which 
moves  the  pure  will  to  obey  the  mandate  of 
unrewarded  Duty? 

If  phenomena  are  a  wilful  falsification  of 
Reality,  as  Christian  Science  asserts,  then  is  all 
philosophy  and  truth-seeking  futile.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  no  real  thinker,  since  the  over- 
throw of  the  Eleatic  fallacy,  has  been  guilty  of 
so  unphilosophical  a  contention.  The  position 
of  the  great  thinkers  is  that  phenomena  result 
from  man's  inadequate  attempt  to  interpret  the 
Noumenon.  Furthermore,  Kant  was  not  so 
illogical  as  to  impose  conditions  on  his  uncog- 
enizabl  "Thing-in-itself;"  so,  while  maintaining 
that  the  categories  lift  finite  mind  into  no  intel- 
ligible conception  of  Infinite  Mind,  the  Kantian 
Critique  furnishes  no  warrant  for  the  assertion 
of  Christian  Scientists  that  Infinite  Mind  in  its 
sweep  of  the  universe  cannot  descend  to  all 
conditions  of  finite  mind. 

Many  loose  reasoners  would  identify  Chris- 
tian Science  with  Hindooism;  but,  in  fairness 
to  the  Vedanta  Philosophy,  let  us  appeal  to 
authorities;  first  to    Prof.  Max    Miiller   whose 

64 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

writings  clearly  show  that  Vedanta  avoids  those 
basic  errors  which,  when  clearly  seen,  wholly 
discredit  Christian  Science.  The  great  Western 
authority  says,  "After  lifting  the  Self— 'the 
heavenly  man'— above  body  and  soul,  after 
uniting  heaven  and  earth,  the  Vedanta  philoso- 
phers have  destroyed  nothing  in  the  life  of  the 
phenomenal  beings  who  must  act  and  fulfill 
their  duties  in  the  phenomenal  world.  On  the 
contrary,  they  have  shown  that  there  can  be 
nothing  phenomenal  without  something  that  is 
real." 

Our  other  authority,  the  Swami  Abhedananda, 
says,  "The  Vedanta  Philosophy  holds  as  much 
inducement  to  the  human  heart  eager  for  per- 
sonal fellowship,  love,  and  marriage,  as  Christ 
held  by  his  life  and  teachings.  Moreover,  it 
encourages  scientific  investigation  and  invent- 
ive genius,  but  it  tells  the  sincere  seeker  after 
the  highest  spiritual  Truth  that  these  are  on 
the  lower  plane  of  phenomenal  appearance." 
*' Vedanta  teaches  that  Divine  Reality  manifests 
through  the  various  stages  of  the  evolution  of 
Nature,  of  Prakriti  or  Maya,  or  Divine  Energy. 
The  essence  of  the  subject  and  the  essence  or 
the  object  are  one  on  the  highest  spiritual  plane 
alone;  the  fundamental  principle  being  Unity 
in  variety  of  manifestation."  "The  evolution  of 
Maya— phenomena— is  to  help  each  individual 
soul  to  attain  to  the  highest  state  of  spiritual 
perfection." 

With    his    usual    perspicuity,  Emerson,  who 

65 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

owed  much  to  India,  thus  remarks,  "an  inevi- 
table dualism  bisects  nature,  so  that  each  thing 
is  a  half,  and  suggests  another  thing  to  make 
it  whole.  While  the  world  is  dual,  so  is  every 
one  of  its  parts — This  dualism  underlies  the 
nature  and  condition  of  men. — Every  sweet  hath 
its  sour;  every  evil  its  good."  Any  system 
denying  the  many  as  opposed  to  the  One;  any 
system  ignoring  the  law  of  polar  opposites, 
comes  to  grief  because  of  an  ineradicable  dual- 
ism hiding  or  flaunting  in  its  very  midst. 

XI 

To  recapitulate;  the  ill  concealed  dualism  of 
the  Eleatic  Philosophy,  which  lead  to  its  over- 
throw, reappears  in  Christian  Science,  which, 
standing  for  pure  Monism,  drops  upon  investi- 
gation into  a  dualism  because  its  utter  inability 
to  account  for  mortal  mind,  and  that  error  of 
mortal  mind,  the  inharmonious,  phenomenal 
world  of  sense,  argues  the  existence  of  an  evil 
principle  at  war  with  God.  Christian  Science 
grants  to  "nothing,"  and  those  so-called  equiva- 
lents, error,  false  belief,  and  malicious  magnet- 
ism, an  activity  inconsistent  with  their  supposed 
nothingness.  A  system  holding  that  God  is 
All,  denies  the  creative  act  and  logically  must 
conclude  that  God's  every  reflection,  or  idea,  is 
part  of  Himself,  or,  more  strictly,  it  is  Himself 
for  the  Unity  of  Being  is  indivisible.  Because 
of  this  outcome,  Christian  Science  contradicts 
its   declaration   that   God  is  not  in  man.    Cir- 

66 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

cumscribing  God's  knowing  to  a  knowledge  of 
his  own  perfection,  Christian  Science  cannot 
account  for  man's  rise  from  savagery,  nor  can 
it  explain  the  Divine  origin  of  the  Decalogue. 
Because  its  view  of  evil  is  inadequate,  Christian 
Science  insults  the  Divine  Providence  by  deny- 
ing the  purpose  of  this  mortal  life.  Christian 
Science  has  no  tears  of  sympathy  like  those 
which  Jesus  wept;  it  makes  inconsistent  many 
of  his  greatest  acts.  It  fails  to  prove  its  source 
of  healing  to  be  other  than  mortal  mind. 
It  teaches  that  the  cardinal  sin  is  ignorance  of 
Truth  as  discovered  by  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  denies 
the  real  lesson  taught  through  the  punishment 
of  sin.  Though  announcing  that  "To  remit  the 
penalty  due  for  evil  would  be  for  Truth  to 
pardon  error."  Christian  Science  does  in  fact 
oppose  retributive  Justice  by  denying  away 
pain  its  penalty;  and  by  so  doing  augments  the 
final  penalty.  Christian  Science  would  prosti- 
tute Divine  healing  to  a  commercial  transaction. 
It  absurdly  teaches  that  man,  the  great  thought 
of  God,  unfolds  and  progresses.  By  admitting 
that  earthly  beauty  is  something,  it  uncon- 
sciously admits  that  all  phenomena  are  some- 
thing. Holding  that  God  requires  a  witness  of 
His  Being  and  an  object  of  His  Love,  it  fails 
to  produce  either  witness  or  object.  Filled 
with  self-satisfaction,  it  is  unjust  to  such  con- 
temporaries as  Theosophy  and  Spiritualism. 
Christian  Science  fallacy  perverts  God's  love 
of  His   creatures    to   self-love.     By   admitting 

67 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

th;it  the  order  oi  material  nature  proves  the 
Divine  Order,  Christian  Scienec  unwittingly 
ar<^ues  for  the  material.  Christian  Science 
makes  the  earthly  man  an  error  procreated  by 
an  error  self-existent  because  without  parent- 
acTe.  Recent  astronomy  renders  it  probable 
that  the  ignorant  mortal  mind  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence obtains  in  a  planet  older  and  supposedly 
more  advanced  than  this  earth.  In  these  days 
of  numerous  Elijahs,  Christian  Science  has 
rendered  possible  a  new  and  greater  Mary,  and 
hails  her  as  the  mother  of  the  Second  Coming. 
By  assuming  one  attribute  of  Deity  to  be  higher 
than  all  others,  it  would  prove  woman  the  high- 
est human  expression  of  the  Divine.  Christian 
Science  belittles  Jesus  and  misconceives  the 
Divine  Fatherhood  and  Motherhood  of  God. 
Christian  Science  opinion  that  if  God  dwell  in 
what  He  creates  He  would  be  absorbed  and  the 
Science  of  Being  lost,  makes  the  creature  om- 
nipotent, and  the  Creator  finite.  Finally,  from 
the  standpoint  of  illogical  metaphysics,  Chris- 
tian Science  undertakes  an  interior  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture. 

Against  the  above  summary  we  have  state- 
ments like  these,  "  in  Christian  Science  there 
are  no  discords  nor  contradictions  because  its 
logic  is  harmonious  as  the  reasoning  of  an 
accurately  stated  syllogism."  "Christian  Sci- 
ence is  pre-eminently  scientific,  being  based  on 
Truth,  the  Princi[)le  of  all  science."  "If  one 
statement  in  this  book  is  true,  every  one  must 

G8 


OF  CPfRISTIAN  SCIENXK 

be  true  for  not  one  departs  from  its  system  and 
rule."  From  the  last  of  these  quotations  it  is 
evident  that  if  one  statement  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence is  false,  every  one  must  be  false. 

XII 

Viewing  in  retrospect  the  exploded  religious 
beliefs  and  theories  of  the  past,  one  is  surprised 
at  the  credulity  of  the  multitude,  and  amazed 
because  of  the  attitude  of  many  minds  sup- 
posedly of  the  first  rank.  Did  some  wide- 
sweeping  tide  of  hypnotic  suggestion  tear  the.e 
latter  from  their  moorings?  Or  did  they  but 
illustrate  the  imperative  needs  of  the  human 
soul,  weary  with  questioning  the  unresponsive 
night  which  walls  the  four  score  years  of 
mortal  life?  Or  else  did  they,  even  as  drown- 
ing men,  catch  at  pitiful  straws? 

The  gift  of  unvarying  enthusiasm  is  denied 
to  all  save  the  rarest  souls.  For  men  of  the 
better  sort,  ideals  the  brightest  suffer  occa- 
sional dimming.  Only  at  intervals  in  the  life 
of  the  usual  man  does  the  ideal  shine  forth. 
.Surrounded  by  Sabbath  observances,  he  experi- 
ences a  temporary  glow  of  religious  feeling; 
but,  unlike  the  Quaker,  he  cannot  dedicate 
every  day  to  the  Lord.  For  the  arousing  of 
such  a  man  something  drastic  is  necessary, 
something  novel,  fantastic,  .strange  even  to  the 
reversal  of  all  previous  beliefs  and  experiences. 
Nothing  less  will  transform  those  for  whom 
routine,  however  reasonable,  however  time- 
G9 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

proven,  has  lost  the  seduction  of  the  new. 
Herein  chiefly  lies  the  compelling  power  of 
fashions  and  fads  and  cults,  to  follow  which 
men  will  subscribe  to  every  absurdity  and  lun- 
acy; in  fact,  to  doctrines  repugnant  to  their 
higher  nature  and  opposed  to  all  ethical  experi- 
ence; for  instance,  those  doctrines  constituting 
the  bulk  of  the  philosophy  of  Friedrich  Nietz- 
sche. 

Christian  Science  is  not  without  its  proportion 
of  brilliant  minds  capable  of  correct  reasoning 
in  the  premise.  Why  then  their  anomalous 
position?  In  how  many  of  these  has  constant 
affirmation  of  their  cherished  belief  induced  an 
inability  to  realize  the  nature  of  their  fools 
paradise?  What  proportion  of  her  foremost 
followers  have  discarded  logic  and  accepted 
Mrs.  Eddy  because  of  healing  within  the  imme- 
diate circle  of  their  observation?  And  this 
notwithstanding  that  the  devout  pilgrim  to 
some  sacred,  historic  shrine;  or  the  wrapt 
adorer  of  a  fragment  of  the  true  cross;  or  even 
he  who  with  faith  touches  or  merely  looks  upon 
the  material  relics  of  some  cannonized  mortal; 
has,  in  authenticated  cases,  experienced  a  cure 
wonderful  as  any  that  Christian  Science  arro- 
gates to  its  own  method.  As  for  the  rank  and 
file  of  "Scientists,"  it  may  with  warrant  be 
asserted  that,  having  enrolled  themselves 
through  impulse  rather  than  reasoned  choice, 
no  argument  of  reason  appeals  to  them.  Having 
denied  the  conclusions  of   mortal   reason,  the 

70 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

"Scientist"  is  rudderless  and  adrift  unless  he 
accept  the  infallibility  of  Mrs,  Eddy.  Even 
his  belief  in  mathematics  and  geometry  will 
depend  wholly  upon  her  dictum. 

In  this  connection,  the  following  from  Andrew 
Jackson  Davis  is  pertinent.  "  When  a  human 
being  is  accepted  as  an  infallible  revelator  —  as 
an  unerring  teacher  of  heavenly  truths — there 
is  an  end  to  all  reasoning  upon  the  probability 
or  possibility  of  the  reality  of  his  revealments. 
The  mere  show  of  reasoning  is  equivalent  to  a 
farce,  an  insult  to  the  utterance  of  the  Lord 
through  His  chosen  vessel.  The  believer  has 
sold  his  judgment,  his  reason,  his  understand- 
ing so  completely  that  he  no  longer  sees  the 
revelator  as  one  mentally  constituted  as  are 
others.  Defending  his  position  the  believer 
says,  '  It  is  truth  entirely  transcending  the  reach 
of  the  native  faculties.  This  truth  has  come  to 
me,  and  throned  itself  in  the  central  conscious- 
ness of  my  soul,  bringing  with  it  the  most 
sacred  obligation  to  announce  it  to  the  world! '  " 

The  present  writer  realizes  the  futility  of 
argument  with  the  confirmed  "Scientist."  What- 
ever here  written  is  for  the  unbiased  investi- 
gator, and  those  who^as  yet  are  on  the  threshold 
of  that  most  empty  of  modern  rearings,  the 
Temple  of  Eddyism. 

Considering  the  counterclaim  of  Dr.  Quim- 
by's  representatives,  the  critic  must  acknowl- 
edge a  weight  of  evidence  to  show  that  the 
nucleus  and  original  incentive  of  Christian  Sci- 

71 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

ence  existed  in  the  loosely  formulated  theories 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  former  physician.  But  then, 
Dr.  Quimby  himself  was  by  no  means  originator 
of  the  transcendental  metaphysics  on  which  he 
based  his  mental  healing.  His  ideas  were  but 
fragments  of  what  India  and  Egypt  had  divined, 
and  Greece  had  inherited.  From  remote  times, 
those  ideas  have  been  the  common  possession 
of  the  world.  Around  and  upon  them  Mrs. 
Eddy,  or  any  other  far-seeing  swayer  of  men, 
was  free  to  construct  a  religion  whose  glamour 
would  enthrall  the  multitude.  As  for  the  bulk 
of  her  book,  her  individuality  is  impressed  on 
every  page  and  a  deal  of  thinking  is  between 
its  covers. 

To  establish  her  claim  as  exclusive  discoverer 
of  "Science,"  Mrs.  Eddy  must  needs  discredit 
her  old  benefactor  ;  hence  she  denounced  as  an 
illiterate  mesmerist,  one  of  whom  she  had  writ- 
ten, •'  P.  P.  Quimby  rolls  away  the  stone  from 
the  sepulchre  of  error  and  health  is  the  resur- 
rection." In  justice  to  the  dead,  let  Dr.  Quimby 
speak  for  himself.  "  I  found  that  my  senses 
were  not  in  my  body,  but  that  my  body  was  in 
my  senses.  My  knowledge  located  my  senses 
just  according  to  my  wisdom.  If  a  man's  knowl- 
edge is  in  matter,  all  there  is  of  him  is  contained 
in  matter.  But,  if  his  knowledge  is  in  wisdom, 
then  his  senses  and  all  there  is  of  him  are  out 
of  matter."  Plainly  this  is  the  original  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  novel  discovery  that  the  real  man  is  not 
in  the  physical  body.     Here  is  a  bit  of  Science 

72 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

sound  as  any  from  the  lips  or  pen  of  Mary 
Baker  Eddy,  albeit  Dr.  Quimby  is  the  author. 
'*  I  deny  disease  as  a  truth,  but  admit  it  as  a 
deception.  Disease  is  an  evil  that  follows  tak- 
ing an  opinion  for  a  truth.  Every  disease  is  an 
invention  of  man,  and  has  no  identity  in  wisdom. 
Disease  is  the  misery  of  our  belief,  happiness 
is  the  health  of  our  wisdom.  False  reasoning 
is  sickness  and  death.  The  Devil  is  the  error 
of  mankind." 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  not  improved  on  Dr.  Quim- 
by's  definition  of  death  whereof  he  says,  "  Death 
is  the  name  of  an  idea."  "  Man  is  dying  and 
living  all  the  time  to  error,  till  he  dies  the 
death  of  all  his  opinions  and  beliefs.  There- 
fore to  be  free  from  death  is  to  be  alive  in  truth." 

The  Bangor,  Maine  "  Jeffersonian,"  in  1857 
thus  described  the  doctor's  method  of  cure  : 
"  Quimby 's  theory  is  that  the  mind  gives  imme- 
diate form  to  the  animal  spirit,  and  that  the 
animal  spirit  gives  form  to  the  body.  His  first 
course  in  the  treatment  of  a  patient  is  to  sit 
down  beside  him,  and  put  himself  en  rapport 
with  him,  which  he  does  without  producing  the 
mesmeric  sleep.  With  the  spirit  form  Dr. 
Quimby  converses  and  endeavours  to  win  it 
away  from  its  grief  ;  and  when  he  succeeds  it 
disappears  and  reunites  with  the  body  which 
commences  its  effort  to  come  into  a  state  of 
accordance  with  it."  Here  is  the  origin  of  the 
teaching  that  mortal  mind  creates  the  physical 
body  and  is  the  source  of  all  its  ailments. 

73 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

When  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  in 
the  far  East  had  found  that  the  virgin  birth  and 
the  crucifixion  were  historic  in  religions  older 
than  Christianity,  they  at  once  saw  in  this  the 
cunning  work  of  the  Devil  forestalling  truth, 
and  so  working  the  discredit  of  that  which 
would  in  time  appear.  By  like  reasoning  the 
Eddyite  may  determine  that  mortal  mind,  the 
cunning  counterfeiter,  did,  in  the  scribblings  of 
an  ignorant  mesmerist,  seek  to  forestall  and  so 
discredit  the  Divine  Revelation  which  gave  to 
the  world  the  precious  volume  of  the  book 
wherein  is  written  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of 
Truth.  But  the  most  adroit  trick  of  mortal 
mind,  one  that  well  nigh  tempts  us  to  belive  in 
the  machinations  of  a  real  live  devil,  was  the 
mesmerizing  of  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  to  that  ex- 
tent that  she  must  rush  into  print  as  an  extrava- 
gant eulogizer  of  mortal  mind  in  the  guise  of 
the  aforesaid  Quimby. 

Speaking  seriously,  it  is  evident  that,  through 
pondering  on  the  theories  of  Dr.  Quimby  and 
the  life  and  ministry  of  Jesus,  Mrs.  Eddy  came 
into  the  conviction  that  nothing  less  than 
Divine  Mind  was  the  source  of  cure,  and  that 
Divine  Mind  demanded  an  adequate  medium. 
Hence  her  exaltation  of  man  to  his  status  in 
her  pseudo  philosophy. 

Constructing  that  error  the  physical  body, 
mortal  mind  has  accustomed  itself  to  a  certain 
routine.  To  maintain  what  is  called  health,  it 
believes  that  the  various  organs  must  perform 

74 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

certain  routine  functions.  For  Mrs.  Eddy,  dis- 
ease is,  after  all,  the  distress  of  mortal  mind  at 
something  which  in  the  body  obstructs  routine. 
The  comfortable  feeling  induced  by  uninter- 
rupted routine,  Mrs.  Eddy  chooses  to  call  a 
nearer  approach  to  Truth  than  is  interrupted 
routine. 

Let  us  call  the  normal  human  body  a  com- 
fortable error  ;  one  that  gathers  to  itself  such 
uncomfortable  errors  as  sickness,  accident, 
mutilation  and  death.  The  discomfort  of  sick- 
ness in  his  own  body  led  Dr.  Quimby  to  the 
methods  of  cure  adopted  in  his  practice.  Sick- 
ness in  her  own  body,  and  an  accident  thereto, 
led  Mrs.  Eddy  to  consult  Dr.  Quimby.  There 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that,  but  for  these 
uncomfortable  errors,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  remained 
in  comfortable  error  all  her  days  with  the 
lamentable  result  that  "  Science  and  Health," 
whose  every  hallowed  page  was  written  as  by 
the  finger  of  God,  had  never  descended  to  her 
on  the  top  of  the  Christian  Science  Sinai.  Nor 
would  temples  have  risen  which,  like  the  Ark 
of  the  covenant,  were  fit  receptacle  of  God's 
sacred  message.  Ah  !  but  for  those  uncom- 
fortable errors,  the  disciple  could  not  now 
repeat  daily  that  modern  incantation,  "The 
scientific  statement  of  Being;"  nor  could  he, 
or  any  other  mortal  on  this  planet,  know  the 
import  of  that  prayer  of  the  Christian  Church  in 
all  ages,  "  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven." 


75 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 
XIII 

Like  Swedenborg,  Mrs.  Eddy  somewhat  un- 
derrates the  average  comprehension  of  her 
students,  for,  as  with  him,  certain  important 
statements  are  ever  recurring  in  slightly  altered 
dress.  To  those  who  see  at  once,  such  repeti- 
tion must  prove  hard  reading. 

The  literary  style  of  "  Science  and  Health," 
much  criticised  at  its  advent,  has  improved 
steadily  with  every  subsequent  edition.  In  that 
of  1907  many  sentences  are  recast,  and  their 
import  is  made  clearer  ;  in  fact,  the  hypercrit- 
ical reader  must  now  search  for  faults  of  diction. 
Whether  or  not,  and  to  what  extent,  the  author 
was  aided  in  this  improvement  is  perhaps  a 
secret  of  the  inner  circle. 

Alexander  Pope  and  Alfred  Tennyson  were 
ever  tinkering  their  lines,  and  Francis  Bacon 
many  times  rewrote  his  famous  essays.  But 
these  authors  claimed  no  higher  guiding  than 
is  vouchsafed  to  Genius.  Is  it  not  strange  that 
the  scribe  of  Mind  should  have  halted  and 
stumbled  like  the  ordinary  literary  tyro  ?  That 
crude  work  the  1875  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health,"  announced  itself  as  apodictical,  and 
yet  nearly  all  of  some  five  hundred  subsequent 
editions  were  doctored  according  to  Christian 
Science  methods  so  that  by  "  Chemicalization  " 
more  and  more  of  meaning  was  incorporated 
into  them.  The  result  is  that  the  edition  of 
1908  but  little  resembles  the  original  revelation. 

76 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Of  the  numerous  quotations  in  this  artiele, 
some  are  from  editions  of  "  Science  and 
Health  "  earlier  than  those  of  1907.  Neverthe- 
less, the  present  writer  deems  this  no  injustice 
because  the  apodictical  principle  is  supposedly 
in  every  edition. 

Certain  contributors  to  religious  and  philo- 
sophic thought,  Jacob  Bohm  for  example,  have 
employed  a  terminology  offensive  to  pedant 
and  purest,  and  generally  misunderstood  by 
the  superficial.  In  Christian  Science  usage, 
such  words  as  Mind,  Good,  and  mortal  mind, 
the  last  confessedly  a  misnomer,  have  a  special 
meaning  which  eludes  the  hasty  reader  of 
"Science  and  Health."  To  Mrs.  Eddy  should 
be  allowed  a  verbal  liberty  granted  to  Kant 
and  Hegel.  This  because  the  adequate  setting 
forth  of  her  unique  system  seemed  to  demand 
it. 

The  far  and  wide  spread  of  a  belief  that  de- 
nies the  veracity  of  physical  sense,  and  there- 
fore the  existence  of  matter  per  se,  is,  at  first 
thought,  strange  in  a  so-called  practical  age, 
but  inasmuch  as  Christian  Science  offers  more 
glittering  prizes  than  any  other  system,  ancient 
or  modern,  to  wit,  escape  from  the  penalty  of 
violated  law,  health  instead  of  sickness,  and, 
eventually,  the  overcoming  of  the  grave  ;  one 
sees  why  the  old,  torturous  climbing  is  aban- 
doned for  a  shorter  and  easier  ascent  to  human 
happiness.  And  yet  to  the  true  disciple,  the 
way  of   Christian    Science    is   one   of  peculiar 

77 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

renunciation,  for  his  goal  is  the  sexlessness  of 
the  real  man.  Because  **  masculine  and  femi- 
nine genders  are  human  concepts,"  sexual 
impulse  must  be  eradicated.  As  a  beginning, 
marriage  should  be  but  one  remove  from  celi- 
bacy. The  error  of  the  marriage  relation  is 
permissible  if  its  only  object  be  the  production 
of  a  higher  race,  a  race  of  celibates  reuniting, 
each  in  himself,  the  male  and  female  principles 
of  Truth  and  Love.  Here  is  translated  to  our 
western  world  the  doctrine  of  the  Eastern 
ascetic.  This  renunciation  is  the  antithesis  of 
the  teaching  of  Swedenborg  ;  it  is  offense  and 
folly  to  the  ordinary  man  ;  it  is  the  crucial  test 
of  the  disciple  who,  except  in  individual  in- 
stances, will  doubtless  fail  just  here  because  of 
the  vast  preponderance  of  the  sexual  impulse 
which,  from  the  Christian  Science  standpoint, 
is  of  all  beliefs  the  most  obstinate  for  upon  it 
seems  to  depend  the  perpetuation  of  life  on 
our  globe. 

We  have  seen  that  to  the  "  Scientist  "  the 
error  of  marriage  is  for  the  present  permissible 
under  certain  restrictions,  and  for  a  specific 
purpose.  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  **  Until  it  is  learned 
that  God  is  the  father  of  all,  let  marriage  con- 
tinue." Knowledge  of  the  trend  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  teaching  forces  the  conclusion  that,  for 
those  who  supposedly  have  learned  from  her 
what  constitutes  the  fatherhood  of  God,  mar- 
riage is  by  no  means  desirable. 

If  the  Eastern  ascetic  be  asked  concerning 

78 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

marriage,  he  will  reply  that  for  the  vast  major- 
ity of  mankind  it  is  a  duty  to  millions  of  wait- 
ing souls  who,  because  of  marriage,  can  re-enter 
earthly  conditions  necessary  to  their  further 
evolution.  Marriage  for  the  enlightened  "  Sci- 
entist" is  a  hindrance  to  Truth's  manifestation 
for,  "Proportionately  as  human  generation 
ceases,  the  unbroken  links  of  eternal  harmoni- 
ous being  will  be  spiritually  discerned  ;  and 
man,  not  of  the  earth  earthy,  but  coexistent 
with  God  will  appear."  That  Mrs.  Eddy's 
teachings  have  an  esoteric  as  well  as  an  exoteric 
meaning  and  application,  the  above  will  show. 

The  wholly  indoctrinated  Eddyite  is  pledged 
to  the  horrible  belief  that  the  child  of  ordinary 
marriage,  the  child  of  flesh  and  blood  and  brain, 
the  child  beloved  and  loving  whom  the  mother 
suckles  and  caresses,  and  whose  like  Jesus  took 
into  his  arms,  is  the  soulless  fruit  of  legalized 
lust. 

To  prove  this  statement,  it  is  but  necessary 
to  make  clear  the  peculiar  position  "in  Science" 
of  both  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  man. 
Those  great  thoughts  of  God,  each  of  which  is 
a  heavenly  man,  are  in  number  infinite.  At  the 
conception  of  every  human  child,  mortal  mind 
counterfeits  some  heavenly  man.  The  infant, 
when  born,  perceives  nothing  save  the  falsities 
which  its  senses  picture.  Having  as  yet  no 
more  conception  of  Truth  than  a  creature  of 
the  earthly  animal  kingdom,  it  is  opaque  to  the 
glory  of  the  heavenly  man.    Later,  under  moral 

79 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

instruction,  the  child  learns  a  little  of  Truth, 
and  so  becomes  less  dense  to  that  thought  of 
God  whereof  he  is  the  counterfeit.  In  the 
highest  specimens  of  the  race,  of  whom  Mrs. 
Eddy  is  of  course  the  chief,  the  mortal  form  is 
quite  transparent  to  its  heavenly  original,  hence 
every  act  of  life  radiates  almost  pure  from 
Truth. 

The  above  makes  evident  that  for  the  sordid 
and  selfish  man  who  has  kept  himself  impene- 
trable to  the  heavenly  shining,  his  life  and  death 
are  as  if  he  never  had  been;  in  fact  he  never 
has  been.  But  what  of  the  infant  dying  as 
such?  Despite  the  beautiful  things  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  written  concerning  marriage,  this  thought 
is  as  a  serpent  sting.  Yes,  what  of  the  infant 
dying  as  such?  The  "Scientist"  will  say  that 
whoever  loved  it  was  lead  to  imagine  the 
heavenly  man;  still  it  was  a  counterfeit,  an 
illusion,  an  error  begotten  of  error:  therefore 
ask  not  the  "Scientist."  Go,  ask  the  mother 
who  with  unnumbered  tears  has  laid  her  little 
one  to  rest!  Go,  ask  the  father  who  with  tender 
solicitude  has  watched  through  the  crisis  of 
child-birth,  and  the  dark  hour  of  his  bereaving! 
Go,  stand  beside  the  tiny  mound  of  green  and 
read  the  simple,  touching  words,  the  undying 
love  and  hope  of  those  who  deem  that  "of  such 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  and  then,  if  you 
can,  go,  tell  the  world  that  there  the  soulless 
fruit  of  lust  lies  buried. 

For   women    who    would    escape    the    usual 

80 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

pangs  of  child-birth,  Christian  Science  has  a 
system  of  obstetrics  concerning  which  its  dis- 
coverer writes,  "To  attend  properly  the  birth 
of  the  new  child,  or  the  divine  idea,  you  should 
so  detach  mortal  thought  from  its  material 
conception  that  the  birth  will  be  natural  and 
safe."  What  contradiction,  what  nonsense  this 
that  calls  the  new  child,  thus  born,  the  divine 
idea!  As  we  have  seen,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  quite 
another  name  for  the  child  otherwise  brought 
forth.  That  the  divine  idea  is  never  born  of 
flesh  we  may  be  sure  for  has  she  not  told  us 
that  Jesus  himself  was  mortal? 

Mother  Eddy  is  virtually  a  promulgator  of 
the  doctrine  of  universal  celibacy,  even  as  was 
Mother  Ann  Lee  in  her  time.  The  student  of 
human  nature  should  note  that  these  two  were 
not  young,  unmarried  women.  Ann  Lee  was 
physically  a  mother  before  spiritually  so,  while 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  had  three  husbands  after  the 
flesh.  Surely  this  is  not  the  young  preaching 
to  the  young,  but,  dare  we  insinuate,  it  may  be 
the  lame  inveighing  against  the  folly  and  sin- 
fulness of  dancing. 

But,  candidly,  how  do  these  theories  of  mar- 
riage prosper  with  the  members  of  Truth's 
enlightened  fold?  If  husband  and  wife  are  of 
one  faith  the  answer  is  greatly  simplified;  but, 
as  often  happens,  the  man  may  yet  be  in  spiritual 
darkness;  he  is,  as  the  Romanists  have  it,  in- 
vincibly ignorant.  Straightway  is  aroused  in 
him  the  spirit  of  rebellion  leading  possibly  to 

81 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

some  overt  act  as  with  the  husband  of  Ann  Lee, 
of  whom  history  saith  that  he  took  to  himself 
another  woman.  An  extreme  case,  yet  no 
prudent  wife  should  risk  anything  in  these 
matters. 

In  the  early  ages  of  this  world,  Divine  Purpose 
foreshadowed,  in  the  mating  of  birds  and  in  the 
maternal  instinct  of  animals,  that  knitting 
together  of  human  souls  known  as  the  family. 
For  six  thousand  years,  and  many  times  six 
thousand,  the  family  has  been  a  lever  uplifting 
men,  slowly  and  surely  uplifting  them  from 
brute  surroundings.  To  fight  and  if  need  be  to 
die  for  wife  and  children,  and  all  that  to  the 
savage  breast  was  home;  this,  grounded  in  sex, 
was  the  primal  impulse  which  long  centuries 
have  refined.  Love  and  brotherhood  and  self- 
sacrifice  engendered  in  the  family,  have,  in  the 
choicest  offspring  of  this  soul-knitting,  over- 
flown to  the  neighbour,  the  community,  the 
nation,  the  human  race. 

Christian  Science  would  look  beyond  the 
supposed  error  of  mortal  kith  and  kin  to  a 
spiritual  family,  a  heavenly  relationship.  For 
the  progressed  "Scientist"  the  past  is  dead,  it  is 
under  his  feet.  If  he  marry  he  must  not  beget 
that  soulless  error  a  mortal  child;  moreover, 
his  wife  should  be  to  him  but  a  sister,  a  sister  in 
"Science."  So  he  resolves  against  marrying, 
and  his  church  tacitly  approves  his  decision. 
What  means  all  this?  Surely  it  means  that 
because    an    erroneous    coming    together,    the 

82 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

earthly  family  is  under  the  ban,  and  therefore 
the  zealous  "Scientist"  should  labour  for  the 
early  consummation  of  that  which,  if  ideal,  will, 
in  the  Providence  of  God,  obtain  ages  hence 
when  the  race  is  spiritually  prepared;  in  other 
words,  when  mankind  is  as  far  superior  to  the 
ordinary  man  of  to-day  as  is  he  to  the  Bushman 
and  the  Hottentot.  Common  sense,  lacking  in 
the  makeup  of  many,  will  convince  its  possessor 
that  any  attempt  to  force  this  tremendous  issue 
invites  nothing  less  than  social  anarchy. 

XIV 

In  the  decadent  days  of  Greek  philosophy, 
the  materialistic  tendencies  of  Zeno  and  Epi- 
curus, and  the  equivocal  attitude  of  the  Scep- 
tics, resulted  in  that  complete  reaction  known 
as  Neo-Platonism.  Such  hierophants  as  Ploti- 
nus  and  Porphyry  sought  through  interior 
illumination,  much  after  the  manner  of  the 
Eastern  sages,  the  very  fount  and  source  of 
highest  truth.  Behold,  to-day,  the  mystical 
tendency  reacting  against  a  crass  materialistism 
current  in  our  midst!  The  names  of  that  reac- 
tion are  Christian  Science,  and  Theosophy,  for 
the  first  of  which  Mrs.  Eddy  is  sponsor. 

In  this  age  of  progress,  woman  outgrows  the 
need  of  Paul's  admonition.  No  more  is  she 
silent  in  the  church,  nor  need  she  learn  any- 
thing of  her  husband  at  home.  On  the  con- 
trary, she  would  revolutionize  modern  religious 
thought.     In  the  person  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy, 

83 


THE   SOPHISTRIES 

and  also  of  Helen  Petrovna  Blavatsky,  she,  like 
Jesus  of  old,  teaches  in  synagogue,  mount  and 
temple,  and  to  the  chosen  she  expounds  the 
mysteries  of  the  Kingdom. 

Of  Mrs.  Eddy,  after  all  the  central  interest 
to  the  mass  of  her  following — hero-worshippers 
as  their  attitude  of  adoration  proves  —  it  may 
with  confidence  be  said  that  Christian  Science, 
but  for  her,  had  never  been  "discovered"  and 
'•  founded."  Amidst  its  wide  contagion,  the 
immune  observer  is  puzzled  because  of  two 
quite  distinct  estimates  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  the 
woman.  Her  enemies  openly  accuse  ;  serious 
accusations  some  of  them,  circumstantial  and 
accompanied  with  affidavits.  On  the  other 
hand,  certain  of  her  trusty  disciples,  men  and 
women  now  for  many  years  closely  knit  to  her, 
easily  those  who  should  know,  see  in  her  daily 
life  the  flowering  of  every  virtue.  Can  these 
opposites  exist  in  any  human  heart  ?  If  not,  is 
it  yet  possible  to  bring  the  above  estimates  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  into  such  relation  that  we  need  not 
quite  reject  the  first  while,  in  part,  accepting 
the  second  ?     Let  us  see. 

The  mind  of  Mrs.  Eddy  bore  overlong  the 
burden  of  a  great  idea  ;  an  ever-increasing  bur- 
den for  the  bulk  of  her  philosophy  grew  day 
by  day  through  those  years  of  gestation.  Dur- 
ing the  months  of  ordinary  gestation  it  is  always 
humane,  and  often  necessary,  that  the  mother 
be  surrounded  by  kindness  and  consideration, 
for  the  unusual  though  imperative  demands  on 

84 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

the  recourses  of  the  body  may  upset  its  nice 
equipoise,  and  the  mind  itself  may  somewhat 
suffer  from  the  general  loss  of  balance.  This 
being  well-known,  it  is  charitable,  it  is  just,  it 
is  customary,  during  this  period,  to  condone 
much  otherwise  open  to  censure. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  lot  was  too  often  cast  among 
the  wholly  commonplace,  those  of  no  outlook 
whatsoever.  Beyond  their  own  petty  routine, 
all  else  was  superfluous.  What  a  waste  of  time 
and  energy  ;  what  a  throwing  away  of  pen,  ink 
and  paper,  was  all  her  scribbling  !  What  utter 
foolishness  her  attempt  to  solve  the  riddle  of 
creation  !  People  had  lived,  and  others  could, 
and  the  little  world  of  each  would  revolve  inde- 
pendent of  her  success  or  failure.  One  had 
better  be  practical,  not  shirking  her  share  of 
household  duties  especially  when  she  is  de- 
pendent on  those  outside  the  circle  of  kith  and 
kin. 

To  one  frail  of  body,  and  predisposed  to  neu- 
rotic disease,  and  therefore  unfit  for  prolonged 
and  severe  mental  effort  ;  to  one  whose  mind 
nevertheless  was  taxed  to  the  utmost  ;  to  one 
who  withal  believed  of  her  mental  gestation 
and  travail  that  the  resulting  birth  would  be 
Divine,  an  inestimable  boon  to  millions,  such 
ingrained  stupidity  as  usually  environed  her 
must  have  been  a  bitter  trial.  Nothing  short 
of  perfect  sainthood  could  stand  such  a  test, 
and  Mrs.  Eddy  had  not  then  attained  to  the 
beatitudes.     She  was  still  a  struggling,  hoping, 

85 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

sagacious,  indomitable  woman  ;  a  well-wisher, 
a  would-be  helper  of  humanity,  but  one  whom 
poverty  and  actual  need  failed  not  to  remind 
that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire.  Look- 
ing down  and  back  to  the  valley  of  tribulation, 
it  must  seem  to  Mrs.  Eddy  almost  a  nightmare 
dream  of  mortal  mind.  Now  from  her  more 
than  royal  seat  she  looks  about  on  hope's  ful- 
filment. Meanwhile  the  tranquil  years  are  with 
her,  those  years  that  soften  and  subdue  the 
heaving  tide  of  life  till,  beneath  its  transparent 
flowing,  is  revealed  whatsoever  of  worth  and 
beauty  is  imbedded  in  the  very  soul. 

Having  accorded  to  Mrs.  Eddy  a  desire  of 
benefiting  mankind,  we  concluded  that  her 
mistakes  are  those  of  the  head  and  not  of  the 
heart.  She  speaks  as  one  having  authority  ;  so 
likewise  do  Mohammed,  and  Swedenborg,  and 
Mother  Ann  Lee,  and  Andrew  Jackson  Davis, 
author  of  **The  Harmonial  Philosophy."  That 
Mrs.  Eddy  speaks  from  conviction  these  words 
would  indicate  ;  *'  I  was  a  scribe  under  orders, 
and  who  could  refrain  from  transcribing  what 
God  indited?"  "Science  and  Health  is  the 
voice  of  Truth  to  this  age."  "  The  true  Logos 
is  demonstrably  Christian  Science."  "  Outside 
of  this  Science  all  is  unstable  error."  ''This 
Science  has  come  already,  and  come  through 
the  one  whom  God  called."  Despite  these 
assertions,  it  is  imperative  that,  before  con- 
structing an  all-comprehensive  philosophy,  one 
examine   critically    other    systems.     Had    this 

86 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

been  done,  Mrs.  Eddy  would  have  known,  for 
instance,  that  Spinoza  failed  because  his  postu- 
lation  of  one  pure,  homogeneous  Substance  — 
the  totality  of  Being — rendered  inexplicable 
the  conditioned,  the  diverse,  the  illusionary 
many.  She  would  have  known  both  how  and 
where  thinkers  of  note  have  made  shipwreck, 
and  so  she  would  have  escaped  those  dangers 
of  rock  and  shoal  awaiting  the  chartless  voyager 
on  the  sea  of  speculative  thought. 

Since  thinking  men  as  such  first  faced  the 
future,  hope  and  despondency  have  widely  sep- 
arated them.  The  pessimist  stands  doubting 
or  bewildered  amidst  the  mystery  of  his  little 
morn  and  noon  and  night.  With  loins  girded, 
and  with  pilgrim  staff,  the  optimist,  he  of 
keener  vision,  discerns  the  dim  road  which 
human  feet  must  wholly  measure  even  to  the 
distant  heights  of  unclouded  joy.  Christian 
Science  is  essentially  optimistic.  It  looks  to 
the  time  when  some  disciple,  foremost  of  many 
such,  will  surmount  the  error  of  physical  death 
to  a  seeming  body  of  flesh,  and  hold  that  body 
free  from  all  error,  save  that  of  its  own  exist- 
ence, until  its  nothingness  is  proven  by  the 
unobstructed  shining  of  the  heavenly  man. 

The  Mount  of  Transfiguration  is  therefore 
the  goal  of  the  race,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  way- 
shower.  With  eyes  fixed  on  the  supreme  goal, 
the  Christian  Scientist  forgets  his  little  ail- 
ments ;  he  has  transcended  life's  petty  trials 
and  troubles,  and  in  his  mental  exhilaration  the 

87 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

gravest  misfortune  is  robbed  of   half  its  pain 
and  terror. 

XV 

Against  "Scientists"  in  general,  it  is  often 
urged  that  they  contribute  little  or  nothing  to 
worthy  and  well-organized  charities.  On  the 
other  hand,  "Scientists"  deem  themselves  more 
effectively  charitable  than  other  Christians. 
From  the  peculiar  stand  of  Christian  Science, 
charity  assumes  a  two-fold  aspect,  wherefore 
this  problem  confronts  the  giver;  whether  to 
give  to  the  suffering  poor  that  which  is  but 
temporary  relief,  or,  to  divide  what  is  given  so 
that,  in  the  midst  of  ignorance,  may  be  erected 
and  maintained  a  church  whose  blessed  office 
shall  be  to  proclaim  unto  mortals,  sunk  in  error, 
the  unreality  of  privation  and  suffering.  Such 
halfing  of  the  dollar,  by  which  Christian  Science 
churches  —  judging  from  the  magnificence  of 
some  —  often  get  the  larger  half;  such  division 
in  the  name  of  sweet  Charity,  may  be  disavowed 
by  individual  "Scientists,"  still  the  logic  of  the 
situation  calls  for,  and  even  demands  it. 

The  truths  of  Christianity,  as  orally  taught  by 
its  founder,  together  with  the  life  of  Jesus, 
if  written  at  all  by  the  evangelists,  were  written 
long  after  the  crucifixion,  and  so  are  matters  of 
memory,  as  frequent  dissimilarities  in  the  four 
Gospels  would  indicate.  The  Gospels  were  the 
works  not  of  trained  theologians  and  meta- 
physicians, but  of  men  unaware  of  the  niceties 

88 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

of  meaning  to  which  their  phraseology  easily 
lends  itself.  Simple,  straightforward  narrators, 
the  evangelists  made  clear  to  themselves,  and 
their  direct  following,  that  which  soon  resulted 
in  ever-multiplying  interpretations  until,  to-day, 
the  Christian  Church  is  divided  into  nearly  two 
hundred  depositaries  of  what  each  deems  the 
unmixed  truth. 

When  an  intolerant  Paganism  had  forced 
Christianity  into  caves  and  catacombs,  where 
was  the  theological  censor  who,  penetrating  to 
its  every  hiding,  could  crush  beneath  his  auto- 
cratic heel  the  hell-sprung  buds  of  heresy  and 
schism?  And  when,  notwithstanding  the  mar- 
trydom  of  its  founders,  the  Church  Catholic  fell 
upon  a  corrupt  day  whose  intolerable  abuses 
led  to  the  schism  of  Luther;  what  happened? 
Not  merely  the  loss  to  its  communion  of  the 
Germanic  and  the  English  peoples,  but,  worse 
than  this,  certain  heresies  obtained  among  the 
Protestants,  because  of  which  the  seven  sacra- 
ments wherewith,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 
Mother  Church  had  ministered  to  the  spiritual 
needs  of  her  children,  were  now  reduced  to 
these  two,  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist,  the 
latter  being  degraded  from  a  sacrifice  to  a  com- 
memoration. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  merely  wise  in  her  genera- 
tion; she  has  learned  from  the  unwisdom  and 
impotence  of  the  past.  As  the  oracle  of  Truth, 
she  has  to  her  utmost  made  plain  an  abstruse 
subject;  and,  if  he  search  diligently,  the  student 

89 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

of  her  "revelations"  will  find  their  meaning. 
While  Christian  Science  should  be  defended 
from  foes  without,  Mrs.  Eddy  well  knows  that 
its  real  enemies  will  be  those  of  its  own  house- 
hold. Some  visionary  Mohammed  may  seri- 
ously divide  the  faithful,  or,  most  dreadful  of 
possibilities,  a  misguided  Mary  will  claim  a 
divinely  appointed  spiritual  or  physical  birth. 
It  behooves  Mrs.  Eddy  to  be  vigilant,  and 
nothing  short  of  autocratic,  to  every  menacer 
within  the  fold.  Judge,  jury  and  executioner 
she  must  be,  and  prompt  indeed  in  these  ofifices. 

Of  those  who  have  known  the  iron  hand, 
some  retail  their  grievance  in  book  or  news- 
paper. They  tell  of  years  of  service  and  sacri- 
fice; they  would  have  the  public  exclaim  at  an 
injustice  the  real  occasion  of  which  they  do  not 
reveal.  Because  outside  of  the  Christian  Sci- 
ence cult,  the  great  preoccupied  world  cares 
nothing  for  such  internal  dissensions;  with  the 
remark  that  over-sweet  makes  the  sharpest 
acid,  it  hurries  on  and  straightway  forgets. 
Meanwhile,  those  of  the  inner  circle  fully  real- 
ize the  necessity  of  their  leader's  act. 

In  her  teaching  days,  Mrs.  Eddy  never  ceased 
to  impress  on  her  pupils  that  this  life  is  but  the 
dream  of  mortal  mind  which  itself  is  absolutely 
nothing.  If,  despite  her  assertions,  some  bright 
student  not  yet  awed  into  unreasoning  faith, 
would  timidly  insinuate  that  a  dream  requires 
a  dreamer.  Mrs.  Eddy  at  once  rose  to  the 
situation.     With  quelling  glance,  and  voice  of 

90 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

withering  scorn,  she  would  hurl  the  crushing 
rejoiner,  "Not  another  word!  Error  is  getting 
the  better  of  you  !"  Mrs.  Eddy  well  under- 
stood what  every  "discoverer"  and  "founder" 
of  Truth  should  know,  that  when  religious 
argument  limps  and  stumbles,  it  can  have  no 
prop  like  the  crutch  of  authority. 

By  means  of  an  implication  having  all  the 
force  of  a  specific  statement,  Mrs.  Eddy  thrones 
herself  above  mere  kings  and  queens,  and  in  fact 
with  the  spiritually  supreme  of  the  Christian 
Ages  ;  evidently  those  to  whom  prayer  is  daily 
offered  in  the  Mother  Church  of  Christendom. 
To  understand  the  following,  and  more  of  the 
same  tenor,  one  needs  not  the  gift  of  interpret- 
ing the  new  tongue  of  Christian  Science.  "No 
person  can  take  the  individual  place  of  the 
Virgin  Mary.  No  person  can  compass  or  fulfill 
the  individual  mission  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
No  person  can  take  the  place  of  the  author  of 
'Science  and  Health,'  the  discoverer  and 
founder  of  Christian  Science.  Each  individual 
must  fill  his  own  niche  in  time  and  eternity." 

Never  was  good  Catholic  of  the  middle  ages 
more  ruled  by  dogma  and  infallibility  than  is 
the  Christian  Scientist  of  to-day;  he  has  but  ex- 
changed the  Fisherman  of  St.  Peter's  for  the 
Pastor  Emeritus  of  The  Mother  Church  of 
Boston.  From  the  foregoing  may  be  indicated 
the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  Christian  Science 
Denomination  in  the  years,  now  inevitably  near, 
when  Mrs.  Eddy  shall  have  passed  from   the 

91 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

error  of  earthly  body  and  the  mind  which  gives 
it  semblance  of  life;  in  other  words,  when  she 
shall  have  seemed  to  die  like  an  ordinary 
mortal,  or,  as  the  faithful  hint,  when  she  shall 
have  disappeared  in  a  way  unusual  as  that  of 
Enoch  and  Elijah,  those  ancient  worthies. 

In  candor  it  must  be  said  of  Rome  that  she 
has  yielded  grudgingly,  and  inch  by  inch,  such 
positions  as  universal  enlightenment  and  mod- 
ern discovery  have  rendered  intenable.  For 
reasons  already  given,  Christian  Science  cannot 
yield  one  jot  or  tittle.  Its  future  will  accord 
with  its  past.  Truth's  vicegerent  must  needs 
have  a  successor,  or  a  company  of  successors, 
clothed  with  autocratic  power  ;  in  fact  a  star 
chamber  above  all  appeal. 

Despite  every  objection  urgeable.  Christian 
Science  has  been  promoter  of  much  good.  In 
the  presence  of  an  enthroned  materialistic 
philosophy  like  that  of  Locke  and  his  followers 
down  to  Herbert  Spencer,  it  asserts  the  claims 
of  Idealism.  In  the  hearts  of  multitudes  it  is 
dethroning  matter  by  proving  the  kingship  of 
Mind.  It  emphasizes  the  need  of  cheerfulness 
and  the  optimistic  outlook,  and,  as  one  result, 
the  thoughts  of  many  a  spleeny  imaginer  have 
been  turned  from  self.  As  a  novel  and  militant 
heterodoxy  against  a  narrow  and  inadequate 
orthodoxy,  it  is  forcing  men  from  the  old  ruts. 
It  stands  for  the  man  that  was  before  the 
moment  of  human  generation.  It  holds  him 
and  every  other  creature  of  God  to  be  a  dweller 

92 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

in  Eternity,  that  which  the  earthly  man  has 
divided  into  past,  present  and  future.  It  utters 
a  wise  warning  against  the  materialistic  tend- 
encies and  general  harmfulness  of  much  in 
modern  Spiritism.  Its  ethical  requirements 
are  the  highest  attainable,  and,  to  blind  belief 
in  ancient  dogma,  it  imparts  that  desire  for 
sight  which  may  yet  result  in  the  perfect  vision. 

Christian  Science  is  with  us,  but  not  as  trans- 
lated from  some  classic  though  obsolete  tongue; 
not  as  gospel  so  ancient  that  its  authenticity  is 
questioned;  neither  is  it  here  as  Truth  skillfully 
tinkered  and  supplemented  by  zealot,  bigot  and 
self-seeker;  but  it  is  here  as  plenary  revelation 
through  Truth's  yet-living  medium. 

Wholly  sure  of  its  perfection,  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science  has  walled  it  round  with 
unusual  safeguards.  Nothing  foreign  can  be 
incorporated  into  its  doctrinal  structure.  No 
latitude  of  individual  opinion,  therefore  no 
incipient  heresy,  is  allowed  its  interpreters. 
No  sermonizing,  consequently  no  dangerous 
rhetoric  that  wanders  in  flowery  but  diverging 
ways,  is  heard  in  Christian  Science  churches- 
Well-grounded,  well-proven  believers,  one 
male  and  one  female  —  to  represent  the  two- 
foldness  of  Mind  —  read  from  Holy  Writ,  also 
from  "  Science  and  Health,"  thus  expounding 
the  old  bible  by  means  of  the  new.  The  entire 
procedure  is  expedient  since  Christian  Science 
cannot  be  improved  or  modified  without  danger 
of    collapse;  and  yet,  if    it    would    endure,  its 

98 


THE  SOPHISTRIES 

entire  foundation  must  be  relaid,  and  in  some- 
thing more  stable  than  sand. 

Christian  Science,  which,  according  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  "  corrects  the  philosopher,  refutes  the 
astronomer,  and  exposes  the  subtle  sophist  ;  " 
Christian  Science  "  built  upon  the  rock  of 
Christ  ;"  Christian  Science,  "the  cognomen  of 
all  true  religion,  the  quintessence  of  Christian- 
ity ;  the  fiat  of  divine  Intelligence  ;  "  Christian 
Science  "  whose  principle  and  rule  is  the  wonder 
and  harmony  of  heaven  and  earth,"  Christian 
Science  "which  is  God's  right  hand  grasping 
the  universe,"  Christian  Science  "  the  Comforter, 
the  Holy  Ghost,  revealer  of  all  Truth;"  Chris- 
tian Science  "  which  erect  and  eternal,  will  go 
down  the  dim  posterns  of  time  ;  "  fails,  notwith- 
standing all  their  hyperbole,  yes,  signally  fails 
to  answer  the  question  of  questions,  "What  is 
Truth  ?"  nevertheless,  let  no  one  doubt  that  to 
the  final  solution  of  that  question  the  universe  is 
pledged.  A  gradual  revelation,  Truth  bursts 
and  blazes  not  on  any  seeker,  no,  not  on  any 
prophet  or  seer.  One  by  one  the  veils  are  torn 
from  its  inmost  shrine.  Rung  by  rung,  up  the 
ladder  of  life,  man  emerges  into  the  light, 
leaving,  in  the  ever-deepening  dark  of  error, 
those  old  truths  which  once  did  seem  to  satisfy. 

The  Divine  Architect  wills  that  men  behold 
His  creation  with  no  falsifying  eye.  Therefore, 
Truth,  the  Archetypal,  has  been  the  searched 
for,  the  desired  of  highest  moments,  the  fulfiU- 
able  dream,  since  sages  and  prophets  first  drew 

94 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

mortal  breath.  And  unto  Truth,  mankind  up- 
builds a  temple  lofty-domed  that  those  afar 
may  see,  and,  seeing,  gather  nigh  to  worship. 
But  weakness,  error,  is  grained  in  the  corner- 
stone, and  in  the  joining  of  every  arch,  and  in 
the  foundation  of  every  pillar.  Upon  the  fall 
of  that  temple,  men,  wiser  with  purchased  wis- 
dom, build  anew,  and  on  the  ruin  of  that  build- 
ing rear  again.  Surely  it  shall  be  that  the 
temple  of  Truth  some  day  doth  stand  based 
upon  adamant,  its  walls  unshakable  and  crum- 
bling not.  It  fronts  the  rising  east  ;  the  sun  of 
Truth  illumes  with  morn  its  dome  of  drossless 
gold.  Beheld  afar,  'tis  as  a  voice  of  wooing  to 
the  world;  "  Come  ye  up  to  Jerusalem  ye  tribes 
of  men  !  Haste  ye  to  gather  at  the  shrine  of 
Truth  !  Let  the  nations  tarry  not,  and  let  the 
uttermost  isles  of  the  sea  make  journey  to  the 
City  of  the  Light.  There  evil  entereth  not, 
nor  any  sickness  or  sorrow,  neither  hath  death 
dominion  over  man,  for  all  reward  of  righteous- 
ness is  with  the  sons  of  God  !  " 


LEIBNITZ,  HEGEL 
AND  MODERN  THEOSOPHY 


LEIBNITZ,  HEGEL 

AND 

MODERN    THEOSOPHY^ 
I 

THE  disciples  of  the  "Absolute  Philoso- 
phy" hold  that  through  the  secret  of 
Hegel  is  attained  that  fulness  of  truth 
which  will  remedy  the  ills  of  life.  Of  his  own 
attaining  Hegel  never  doubted.  Had  he  not 
found  that  "  Thing-in-itself "  which  Kant  had 
placed  beyond  the  bounds  of  human  under- 
standing, beyond  the  utmost  reach  of  human 
reason,  in  the  realms  of  the  unconditioned,  the 
abode  of  beings  mentally  more  endowed  than 
man  ?  Had  he  not  demonstrated  what  to  the 
cautious  Kant  were  but  articles  of  faith  to  wit, 
God  and  the  soul  ?  Beginning  with  those 
abstractions.  Nothing  and  mere  empty  Being, 
he,  by  a  dialectic  process  of  his  own,  had  arrived 
at  the  perfected  self-consciousness  of  the  Abso- 
lute. On  his  journey  he  had  gathered  to  his 
philosophizing  the  arts  and  sciences  ;  at  his 
conjuring  had  returned  the  old  Aristotlian 
times  enriched  with  the  glories  of  the  modern 
world.     By  his  vast  intellectual  effort  he  had 


^Republished  from  "  The  Arena  "  by  permission  of  B.  O. 
Flower,  Editor. 

99 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

solved  the  problem  of  the  thinker,  the  meta- 
physical riddle  of  the  ages  ;  because  of  this, 
philosophy  was  now  complete. 

But  later  days  brought  doubt,  distrust  of 
Hegel's  principle.  Schopenhauer  scorned  that 
ultimate  truth  should  be  realized  by  a  rational- 
izing method.  After  all.  Bacon's  estimate  of 
philosophy  may  be  just,  "  Like  a  virgin  con- 
secrated to  God  she  bears  no  fruit."  Probably 
Aristotle  has  warrant  for  saying  that  philosophy 
itself  produces  nothing  new.  Many  will  agree 
with  Fichte  that  philosophy  is  but  a  means  to 
the  knowledge  of  life. 

In  human  nature  is  an  irrepressible  craving 
which  mere  logic,  however  exhaustive  and  con- 
vincing, can  never  satisfy.  Man  is  born  from 
mystery  unto  mystery,  and  unto  mystery  he 
returns.  Through  life  he  repeats  the  dying 
words  of  Goethe,  "More  light!"  Hegel,  the 
man  of  method,  was  broad  enough  to  acknowl- 
edge this  universal  need  of  illumination,  but  it 
ill  became  the  logician  to  usurp  the  province 
of  the  seer  ;  it  is  much  that  he  acknowledged 
the  legitimacy  of  such  mystics  as  Jacob  Bohm  ; 
and  yet  the  prosaic  teacher  of  Jena  and  Heidel- 
berg was  inwardly  the  intuitional  dreamer. 
The  laborious  thinker,  creeping  inch  by  inch  to 
the  very  summit  of  human  thought,  had,  ere 
his  ascent,  l)eheld  a  vision  that  allied  him  with 
the  sages  of  old  India. 

He  had  seen  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
things,   the  primordial   Being  devoid  of  attri- 

100 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

butes,  the  one  and  the  many,  the  many  and  the 
one,  indistinguishable,  undifferentiated  in  their 
multitude.  He  had  seen  their  self-externaliza- 
tion  in  the  world  of  sense  ;  the  growing  illusion 
of  separateness  necessary  to  the  concretion  of 
their  individualities  ;  and  he  had  watched  them, 
in  their  great  cycle  of  necessity,  rising  from  the 
earthly  and  returning  whence  they  came,  bear- 
ing each  the  freight  of  its  world  experience, 
converging  each  to  one  center,  there  to  render 
into  the  common  fund  of  wisdom  the  result  of 
every  separate  attainment.  Beholding  all  this, 
he  had  comprehended  the  consummation  ;  the 
self-conscious  many  unified  as  the  self-conscious 
One. 

Becoming,  the  process  whereby  Infinite  Unity 
results  in  finite  diversity,  was,  from  the  pure 
monism  of  Spinoza,  wholly  unaccountable. 
Moreover,  a  pantheism  which  makes  of  man  but 
a  momentary  wave  on  the  ocean  of  Being, 
satisfies  in  no  way  the  "  I  am  I,"  dominant  and 
insistent  in  human  consciousness.  That  it  be 
neither  dissipated  nor  annulled,  human  thought 
requires  a  thinker  persisting  when  the  wave  of 
objective  life  has  passed,  and  so,  because  of  the 
one-sided  pantheism  of  Spinoza,  arose  the 
monadology  of  Leibnitz. 

In  this  system  the  monad  is  a  positive  cen- 
ter of  consciousness  whose  power  to  repel 
proves  the  existence  of  something  repelled, 
namely,  a  plurality  of  monads.  Each  is  a 
microcosm    capable   of  reflecting  the  universe 

101 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

of  monads ;  each  is  a  focal  point  for  all 
others.  The  monad  is  not  in  three-dimensional 
space,  therefore  size  enters  not  into  its  con- 
sideration. 

The  monads  exist  in  an  ever-ascending  series 
from  mineral  to  man.  Monadic  consciousness 
sleeps  in  the  mineral,  dreams  in  the  plant, 
wakes  to  consciousness  in  the  animal,  and  to 
self-consciousness  in  man.  The  monad  of 
man  is  the  self-conscious  dweller  in  his  body, 
itself  the  congeries  of  less-developed  monads. 
Physical  death  is  but  the  loss  of  the  coarser 
and  by  no  means  indispensable  monads  of  the 
outer  body.  The  various  organs  and  general 
structure  arc  maintained  though  no  longer  per- 
ceived by  physical  sense.  What  is  true  of 
man's  life  and  death  applies  in  less  and  less 
degree  in  the  descending  scale  of  physical  be- 
ing. Inasmuch  as  matter  is  to  Leibnitz  but 
crassified  spirit,  he  cannot  well  be  accused  of 
materialism  though  he  demand  a  vehicle  for 
every  grade  of  consciousness. 

In  the  time  of  Hegel,  attention  was  already 
turning  to  the  religio-philosophical  writings  of 
the  remote  East.  Possibly,  in  lands  other  than 
that  of  Thales  and  Pythagoras,  the  eye  of  Rea- 
son had  looked  inward,  and  the  introspection 
had  been  to  some  purpose. 

Hegel's  estimate  of  Hindoo  thought,  as 
voiced  in  his  "  Philosophy  of  History,"  would 
by  any  pundit  be  deemed  absurd.  The  German 
philosopher's  excuse  lies  in  the  then  insufficient 

102 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

knowledge  of  the  sacred  texts  which  in  many 
instances  caution  that  a  teacher  is  necessary. 
Schopenhauer  arrived  nearer  the  truth  when,  as 
he  searched  the  Vedas  and  the  Upanishads,  he 
half  divined  the  secret  science  hidden  beneath 
an  exoteric  dress. 

Modern  Theosophy  purports  to  be  the  sacred, 
esoteric  wisdom  of  old  Egypt  and  India.  Like 
most  ancient  systems,  it  includes  Science,  Re- 
ligion and  Philosophy.  Unlike  Socrates,  it 
centers  not  attention  on  man,  for  it  claims  that, 
prior  to  the  days  of  Socrates,  man  was  the 
object  of  its  exhaustive  study.  Dealing  not 
with  the  categories  of  Kant,  it  yet  claims  as  its 
olden  possession  all  of  value  in  his  Critical 
Philosophy.  Though  ignoring  the  dialectic  of 
Hegel,  it  asserts  its  ascent  of  the  Himalayas 
of  reason  when  as  yet  his  ancestors  roamed 
savage  amidst  the  northern  forests.  It  accords 
not  with  much  in  our  modern  empyrical 
science,  yet  it  professes  to  possess  the  key  to 
riddles  whose  solution  will  reverse  the  attitude 
of  the  physicist.  Its  astounding  claims  to 
knowledge  it  would  substantiate  with  a  vast 
and  elaborated  cosmogony  which  dwarfs  the 
dreams  of  Swedenborg. 

The  "monadology"  of  Leibnitz,  and  the 
scheme  and  outcome  of  Hegel,  exhibit  much 
in  common  with  the  teachings  of  Theosophy  ; 
nevertheless,  the  Absolute  of  Hegel  is  not  the 
Absolute  of  Theosophy,  nor  of  the  Vedanta  Phi- 
losophy, that  more  exoteric  explanation  of  man 

103 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

and  the  universe.  The  Absolute  of  Theosophy  is 
the  *'  Secondless  Eternal  "  of  Vedanta  ;  it  is  the 
concealed  Logos  author  of  the  spoken  Word 
which  itself  is  the  manifested  universe  in  its 
aspect  as  the  undifferentiated  monadic  essence 
from  which  the  totality  of  monads  was  gradu- 
ally unfolded.  In  its  primal  condition,  this 
essence  is  mere  Being  empty  of  meaning  as 
any  digit  if  considered  apart  from  its  relation 
to  numbers  ;  this  essence  is,  in  fact,  what  to 
Hegel  is  equivalent  to  nothing.  The  Unmani- 
fested  Word  is  the  Father  ;  the  Manifested 
Word  is  the  Son  in  whom  are  the  Divine  Im- 
minence and  the  Divine  Transcendence  until 
the  great  day  "  Be  with  Us,"  when  the  universe 
is  merged  in  its  ultimate  source. 

The  Manifested  Word,  the  Original  Emana- 
tion, the  Primal  Substance,  is  the  Sole  Reality, 
the  steadfast  Noumenon,  which,  by  projecting 
its  phenomenal  shadow,  creates  both  time  and 
space,  and  the  material  conditions  wherein 
Reality  may  unfold  its  latent  possibilities. 
This  original  emanation  hovers  around  the 
mineral  world  in  well-nigh  unconscious  nebu- 
losity ;  half-awakened,  it  projects  the  life  and 
shapes  of  trees  that  wave  in  the  wind,  and  all 
of  the  green  and  varied  color  that  springs  from 
earth  into  the  shining  of  the  sun.  Seeing  now 
the  animal  kingdom,  its  own  shadow,  it  be- 
comes identified  with  that  evolution  ;  and  then, 
having  gradually  divided  into  the  many,  it 
surrounds  each  animal  form.      In  man  it  real- 

104 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

izes  itself  as  soul  and  eventually  as  ego.  Pass- 
ing beyond  the  human  stage,  it  knows  itself  as 
free  ego  permitted  to  return  as  world  teacher 
and  uplifter,  or  to  pursue  its  way  toward  the 
highest  Nirvana. 

But  what  of  Nirvana?  Of  what  import  this 
word  of  mystery?  Theosophy  teaches  that 
whosoever  deems  Nirvana  to  be  the  Buddhistic 
vacuum,  has  lost  himself  on  the  metaphysical 
heiehts.  Nirvana  is  the  fruition  of  individual 
unfolding  ;  the  coming  into  touch  with  the 
•' Thing-in-itself "  of  Kant  ;  the  clear  cognition 
of  sole  Reality  ;  the  eternal  union  with  "  the 
silent  watcher,"  that  Original  Substance  which 
enveloped  the  animal  form  ere  man  was  man. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  universal  cycle, 
evolution  has  been  from  mere  potentiality  to 
complete  unfolding  ;  this  progress  necessitated 
the  gradual  individualizing  of  consciousness. 
What  an  absurd  supposition  that  the  result  of 
ages  of  becoming  is  negated  at  the  moment  of 
consummation  !  Nirvana  is  the  center  in  which 
converging  individualities  meet  ;  the  self-con- 
scious realization  that  the  many  are  One.  In- 
dividual attainment  is  there  merged  in  general 
attainment;  seemingly  each  consciousness 
gathers  into  itself  all  others.  This  consumma- 
tion is  not  unlike  that  of  the  "  Absolute  Philos- 
ophy" wherein  the  ego,  reaching  the  focus  of 
thought,  knows  itself  as  all  Truth  attained. 

Kant  argues  that  certain  ideas,  or  notions,  or 
judgments  are  a  priori  in  man.      Worldly  ex- 

105 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

perience  furnishes  the  matter  to  which  these 
judgments  are  the  matrix.  But  that  gatherer 
of  knowledge  the  mind,  cognizes  through  a 
brain  which  knows  reality  as  conditioned  only 
by  time  and  space,  that  to  which  even  the 
"pure  intellect"  must  submit. 

The  limitation  of  mere  brain  ability  to  per- 
ception of  the  phenominal  world,  has  been 
sharply  defined  by  all  Indian  thinkers  ;  and,  in 
accord  with  these,  Theosophy  teaches  that 
only  by  rising  superior  to  the  physical  senses 
into  the  "higher  mind,"  only  by  sundering  the 
ties  of  time  and  space,  does  the  sage  attain 
unto  the  Noumenon.  Evidently  this  results 
from  more  than  that  pure  feeling,  that  inmost 
conviction,  that  intuitive  cognition,  for  which 
Jacobi  declares  in  his  polemic  against  philoso- 
phy in  general. 

In  direct  opposition  to  Locke,  and  more  in 
accord  with  Fichte,  Theosophy  teaches  that  all 
knowledge  is  innate  in  the  ego.  Other  egos 
impinge  upon  it,  and  the  resulting  friction  ex- 
cites the  ego  to  active  unfolding  of  universal 
wisdom  inherited  from  its  divine  Source.  In 
every  monad  the  Divine  Imminence  and 
Transcendence  announces  itself  as  the  law  of 
Cause  and  Effect,  the  law  of  "  Karma,"  the  law 
of  Absolute  Wisdom  and  Justice  ;  therefore, 
every  thought  and  act,  whether  good  or  bad, 
returns  to  the  magnetic  sphere  of  the  monad 
from  which  it  emanated.  The  perpetual  ad- 
justments of  the  Karmic  law  are  to  the  monads 

106 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

of  Theosophy  what    the    "  preestablished   har- 
mony"  is  to  the  monads  of  Leibnitz. 

These  latter,  like  those  of  Theosophy,  are 
eternal  and  indestructible,  and,  as  has  been 
said,  some  have  only  mineral  consciousness, 
others  plant  consciousness,  others  again  are  at 
the  human  stage,  while  the  highest  enjoy  per- 
fected self-consciousness.  Although  the  high- 
er monads  dwell  in  physical  bodies  composed 
of  lesser  monads,  all  pursue  an  independent 
development,  but,  because  of  the  preestab- 
lished harmony,  nothing  of  confusion  arises  ; 
therefore  the  organism  suffers  no  harm  from 
any  monad. 

Theosophy  teaches  that  mutual  helpfulness 
is  the  great  lesson  of  life,  and  yet  what  every 
monad  needs  is  not  wisdom  from  without,  but, 
in  fact,  stimulation  that  it  may  sooner  unfold 
the  amplitude  of  its  own  being.  This  result 
the  chief  monad  of  the  physical  body  accom- 
plishes through  the  unconscious  exertion  of  a 
more-developed  will  drawing  to  itself  the  va- 
rious groups  of  monads  which  construct  the 
organs  unified  by  this  chief  monad. 

Leibnitz  fails  to  explain  the  definite  process 
whereby  the  monad  rises  from  perception  to 
perception  through  the  various  kingdoms  of 
nature  ;  therefore  the  history  of  the  human 
monad,  prior  to  physical  birth,  remains  to  his 
readers  a  mystery.  Theosophy  would  fill 
this  wide  gap  in  the  system  of  the  German 
savant. 

107 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL  AND 

Evidently  an  indestructible  and  unfolding 
consciousness  can  never  be  without  its  appro- 
priate vehicle.  To  the  monad  of  Leibnitz, 
death  was  but  the  loss  of  the  coarsest,  least- 
developed  monads  of  the  physical  body  ;  but  a 
central  doctrine  of  Theosophy  is  that  the  monad 
must  submit  to  a  series  of  physical  reembodi- 
ments.  Unexpended  effects  of  causes  generated 
within  its  own  magnetic  sphere,  compel  it  back 
to  the  arena  of  this  world.  That  lesson  of 
lessons,  the  overcoming  of  selfish  desire,  it 
learned  not  amidst  the  vast  opportunities  of 
hard,  unsympathetic  physical  environment  :  all 
previous  reembodiments,  innumerable  through 
the  ages,  had  been  but  preparation  for  this 
self-conscious  task.  Therefore  Eternal  Justice 
will  cause  the  monadic  consciousness  again  to 
center  itself  in  the  old  lesson  and  the  place  of 
that  lesson. 

Despite  his  Absolute  Idealism,  Hegel  has  by 
many  been  deemed  one  of  the  bulwarks  of 
Christianity.  The  clearest  reasoner  since  Soc- 
rates and  Aristotle,  he  breached  the  stronghold 
of  the  Kantian  logic  in  his  warring  for  the 
existence  of  God,  and  the  actuality  of  the  ego. 
Hegel  remained  within  the  fold  of  Luther,  nor 
deemed  he  stultified  his  mighty  intellect  by 
accepting,  as  final,  the  Gospel  Revelation.  And 
yet  Christ  was  to  him  not  the  Divine  of  the 
old  Scholasticism,  for  the  Reformation  had 
delivered  Reason  and  her  philosophizing  from 
the  thrall  of  rigid  dogma.    Christ  was  to  Hegel's 

108 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

conception  what  the  "Speculative  Phikj)SOphy" 
had  realized  as  possible  of  every  free  ego,  to 
wit,  attained  self-conscious  union  with  God,  for 
which  end  the  Idea,  even  the  Absolute  Spirit, 
in  the  beginning  externalized  itself  as  a  pure 
but  characterless  shadow.  This  conception  of 
Christ  so  nearly  accords  with  Theosophical 
teaching  that  it  is  a  clue  to  the  avatars  of  the 
Hindoo  god,  and  the  birth  of  every  Buddha 
the  East  has  known. 

The  full  Divinity  of  man  is  necessarily  the 
outcome  of  Hegel  ;  but  of  Theosophy  such 
inference  is,  in  fact,  unjust.  The  '*  Ancient 
Arcane  Wisdom"  teaches  that  man  shall  reach 
the  utmost  attainable  in  the  system  of  which 
our  sun  is  the  center,  but  the  all-pervading 
'*  Atman"  is  "That"  which  emanates  and  sus- 
tains every  sun  and  system.  It  is  "That"  into 
which  these  shall  finally  be  drawn. 

Our  sun  has  its  term  of  objective  life,  accord- 
ing to  Theosophy  a  term  of  enormous  duration  ; 
then  follows  the  night  of  subjectivity,  and  then 
a  new  day  into  whose  first  hour  man  emerges 
as  regent  of  the  evolving  nebule  and  the  future 
planets,  but  not  as  the  Universal  King.  In  that 
fresh  dawning  it  will  be  his  office  of  love,  his 
brotherly  duty,  to  impress  upon  the  plastic  and 
pure  monadic  essence,  those  laws  which  shall 
guide  its  otherwise  blind  course  until  the  first, 
faint  unfolding  of  mind.  From  thence  onward 
his  divine  labour  shall  in  nowise  cease,  for  he 
himself  was  impressed  and  guided  and  watched 

109 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

over  on  his  journey  from  the  star  mist  to  the 
throne  of  the  planetary  spheres. 

In  the  pantheistic  system  of  Spinoza,  the 
problem  of  good  and  evil  is  disposed  of  in  a 
manner  unsatisfactory  to  most  thinkers.  Al- 
though possessed  of  an  infinity  of  attributes, 
God,  the  "  Infinite  Substance,"  is  revealed  to 
man  only  as  spirit  or  thought,  and  extension  or 
matter.  Hence  man's  inadequate  grasp  of  ulti- 
mate Truth  ;  hence  also  his  incommensurate 
view  of  good  and  evil  ;  a  view  which  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  innumerable  attributes  of  God 
would  wholly  reverse. 

Leibnitz  distinguishes  three  kinds  of  evil  ; 
metaphysical  evil,  appointed  of  God,  that  im- 
perfection which  in  finite  things  is  the  cause  of 
their  finitude  ;  physical  evil,  ordered  of  God  as 
punishment  or  corrective  ;  moral  evil,  not  or- 
dered of  God,  but  unavoidably  present  if 
individual  will  is  allowed  any  latitude  and 
virtue  is  not  compulsory.  Wolff,  the  supple- 
mentor  of  Leibnitz,  holds  that  evil  exists  not 
because  God  so  wills  ;  rather  it  originates  in  the 
inevitable  imperfection  of  human  nature  ;  never- 
theless, in  the  providence  of  God,  evil  becomes 
a  means  to  good.  Evil,  to  Hegel,  is  but  a 
temporary  wandering  in  the  dark  until  the  light 
of  Reason  reveals  the  path  in  the  progress  from 
mere  Being  to  self-conscious  Being  that  knows 
Itself  as  the  Absolute  Truth  of  every  condition, 
material  and  spiritual. 

Theosophy  teaches  that  all  being  is  a  trinity 

110 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

of  Will,  the  life  principle,  Desire,  the  passional 
nature,  and  Mind,  the  equalizing  and  trans- 
forming power.  In  the  universal  unfolding,  the 
life  principle  as  such  is  at  once  apparent ;  soon 
Desire  tends  to  mere  gratification,  and  eventu- 
ally rages  toward  that  end  ;  Mind,  now  appear- 
ing as  a  feeble  ray,  is  at  once  colored  and 
deflected  by  selfish  Desire.  And  now  the 
battle  of  the  ages  is  on  and  the  wide  world  is 
the  arena.  Unfolding  Mind  is  destined  to  win, 
but  not  by  annihilating  its  adversary,  for  Desire 
is  immortal  as  itself.  Mind  shall  triumph  by 
transforming  self-seeking  Desire  into  Selfless 
Love,  and  to  finite  life  it  shall  reveal  that  truly 
it  is  Life  Eternal  veiled  by  the  physical  from 
its  only  Source. 

II 

In  his  philosophy  of  Art,  Hegel  deals  with 
the  Idea  or  Absolute  Spirit  risen  from  outward 
restraints  into  a  freedom  the  result  of  observ- 
ance in  both  morals  and  the  state.  The  Idea 
is  now  apprehended  by  human  reason  as  the 
objectively  beautiful.  Necessarily  the  beauti- 
ful can  be  cognized  only  through  those  limiting 
mediums  of  art,  the  stone  and  wood  of  the 
builder,  the  marble  of  the  sculptor,  the  colors 
of  the  painter,  the  gamut  of  the  musician,  and 
the  measured  verse  of  the  poet. 

Back  of  art  stands  the  artist,  and  through  the 
various  mediums  he  renders  objective  the  uni- 
versal Idea  as  developed  in  him.     In  architec- 

111 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

ture  the  medium  is  dense,  rigid  and  fixed  ;  the 
spirit  shines  as  through  a  clouded  glass. 
Sculpture  suggests  movement,  and  movement  is 
life  and  vehicle  of  life.  In  painting  the  material 
element  has  largely  disappeared  ;  but,  while 
the  dimensional  is  present,  the  solid  is  only 
indicated.  Music,  most  subjective  of  arts, 
vibrating  surface-ward  from  the  inmost  of  life, 
finds  its  medium  ere  it  reaches  the  eye  ;  that 
medium  is  the  unseen  but  heard  sympathetic 
vibration  of  a  sonorous  body.  Poetry  is  a  syn- 
thesis of  all  arts  ;  to  sound  it  marries  speech 
the  expression  of  a  specific  idea  ;  in  the  epic 
and  the  drama  it  delineates  the  life  of  nations  ; 
with  vivid  touch  and  true  it  paints  the  doing 
of  famous  deeds  ;  with  inspired  chisel  it  fixes 
the  doer  in  imperishable  statuesque. 

Theosophy  claims  not  to  be  a  system  of 
aesthetics  ;  it  asserts  never  with  Schelling  that 
"Art  is  the  sole,  true  and  eternal  organum  as 
well  as  the  ostensible  evidence  of  philosophy  ;" 
neither  does  it  hold  with  Schopenhauer  that 
the  real  course  to  philosophy  is  through  art. 
It  has,  however,  somewhat  to  say  concerning 
the  origin,  nature,  and  possibility  of  color  and 
sound  on  which  the  art  of  painting,  and  also 
that  of  music  is  based. 

That  primordial  Substance  which,  in  its  low- 
est and  most  crassified  manifestation,  formed 
the  material  sun  and  planets,  is  far  more  subtle 
and  tenuous  than  the  luminiferous  ether  of 
physics.     The  inconceivably    rapid    vibrations 

112 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

of  that  Substance  are  the  internal  impulse 
causing  those  atmospheric  vibrations  which,  to 
the  optic  and  the  auditory  nerve,  arc  physical 
light  and  sound.  The  original  vibration  is,  in 
fact,  ultimate  Light  and  Sound.  These,  in 
their  universal  manifestation,  become  fire  and 
motion,  the  Kosmos  builders  shaping  the  pliant 
world-material  into  geometrical  designs. 

Architecture  and  sculpture  deal  largely  with 
the  geometry  of  art,  therefore  with  those 
models  on  which  Kosmos  was  constructed. 
Painting  and  music  deal  directly  with  that  color 
and  that  sound  which  are  the  physical  of  orig- 
inal Light  and  Sound  ;  but  to  the  Light  within 
the  light,  and  to  the  Sound  within  the  sound, 
neither  the  artist  nor  the  musician  can  attain. 
The  sacred  chants  of  the  Sama  Veda,  and  the 
intoned  mantras,  are  supposedly  the  potency  of 
sound  guided  by  the  definite,  uttered  thought 
expressed  in  measured  verse  which  suggests  the 
motion  of  the  Great  Breath  of  Brahm  project- 
ing the  universe  into  finitude,  only  to  draw  it 
back  to  subjectivity  ;  an  alternation  unceasing 
forever  and  ever. 

We  have  said,  and  to  some  extent  have 
shown,  that  modern  Theosophy  makes  astound- 
ing claims  to  knowledge.  Possibly  a  further 
glance  at  its  teachings  will  prove  not  uninter- 
esting. 

Light  and  Sound,  as  vibrations  of  the  great 
Life  Breath,  are,  in  fact,  one,  though  eye  and 
ear  have  separated  them.     The  seven  prismatic 

113 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

colors  composing  the  one  solar  fire,  are  each 
and  all  creative  breaths  united  in  a  center  of 
energy.  Because  of  this  sevenfold  outbreath- 
ing,  the  solar  system,  and  man  the  synthesis  of 
nature,  are  sevenfold.  Of  the  seven  principles 
of  man  and  nature,  the  one  known  as  Atma  is 
on  the  plane  of  immutable  consciousness  ;  all 
others  are  derivitives  finally  to  be  resolved  into 
its  perfected  life  which,  in  the  beginning, 
infolded  perfection  as  the  acorn  infolds  the  yet 
unrealized  oak.  And  as  the  acorn  —  itself  a 
sevenfold  life — requires  for  its  growth  Earth's 
material  conditions,  so  man,  amidst  the  terres- 
trial, shall  himself  unfold.  Man  is  therefore 
enduring  only  in  Atma  which,  in  the  lapse  of 
ages,  he  has  gradually  individualized  to  himself 
from  the  universal  ocean  of  Life. 

Because  the  Atma  of  man  is  in  its  nature 
identical  with  the  Great  Breath,  its  individual 
life  is  commensurate  with  that  of  the  Manifested 
Universe.  Each  principle  wherein  it  shadows 
itself  is  vitalized  by  Atma  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
will  to  live  in  any  of  its  principles  coordinates 
the  monads  or  minute  lives  comprising  that 
principle.  But  this  will  encounters  increasing 
obstacles  because  each  principle,  in  descending 
series,  is  a  more  unyielding  form  of  matter  ; 
therefore,  in  man's  lowest  principle,  the  will  in 
its  going  forth  is  fully  exhausted  in  about  sev- 
enty years.  Weakened,  it  turns  in  its  cycle, 
the  body  grows  old  and  soon  physical  death 
ensues.    Then  the  lower  lives,  deprived  of  their 

114 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

one  harmonizing  will,  work  confusion  and  dis- 
integration to  their  host. 

Within  the  eycle  of  terrestrial  life  are  smaller 
cycles  corresponding  to  the  axle  rotation  of  the 
Earth.     As  that  giver  of  physical  life,  the  sun, 
approaches  the  east,  the  will  to  live  of  the  body 
is  energized,  but  only  to  experience  at  night  a 
corresponding  depression.     This  daily  sinking 
of  the  will  is  sleep  ;  in  other  words,  a  temporary 
inability  to  maintain  relation  with  the  external 
world  ;  therefore  the  indestructible  will  retires 
into    some    higher     principle,    which,    during 
dreamless  sleep,  is  the  Higher  Ego,  fifth  in  the 
ascending  series   of   seven.     Now   is  the   Ego 
free  and  awake  and  active,  but  not  wholly  so, 
for  the  link  between  it  and  the  physical  body 
is  sundered  only  at  the  termination  of  the  great 
will  cycle  of  that  body.     Death    is,  therefore, 
but  the  completion  of  a  process  begun  every 
night   of    our   lives.     Evidently   the    principle 
immediately  higher  than  the  physical  body  has 
a  longer  life  cycle,  but  this  cycle  must  termi- 
nate on  the  plane  of  its  principle. 

At  the  present  stage  of  man's  unfolding,  his 
individualized  Atma  centers  its  attention  on  the 
more  spiritualized  mind,  the  Higher  Ego.  In 
post-mortem  life  the  normal  man  fully  attains 
to  the  plane  of  the  Higher  Ego.  Here  he  finds 
his  heaven  of  rest  ;  here  the  Ego  assimilates  all 
of  good  in  the  previous  earth  life. 

Atma,  the  chief  principle  of  man,  is  a  thing 
of  incessant  activity  for  the  urge  of  the  Abso- 

115 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

lute  Will  is  upon  it.  In  every  deep,  as  in  every 
height,  it  must  contact  whatsoever  stimulates 
its  unfolding  to  universal  Knowledge  and  Wis- 
dom. The  microscopic  world  proves  the  infinite 
patience  and  thoroughness  with  which  it  has 
unfolded  its  knowledge  of  all  kingdoms  culmi- 
nating in  man.  Before  this  earth  as  such  had 
being,  Atma  had  assimilated  the  experience  of 
super-sensible  conditions  which,  in  their  down- 
ward evolution,  objectivized  as  physical  matter. 

Atma  has  not  attained  to  full  self-conscious- 
ness on  the  plane  of  the  higher  mind  because 
that  attainment  demands  more  of  human  expe- 
rience than  it  has  as  yet  assimilated.  The 
Higher  Ego,  the  present  vehicle  of  Atma,  must 
purge  itself  of  every  impurity  ;  encompassed  by 
selfishness,  it  must  wholly  conquer  and  rise  to 
all  helpfulness.  Seventy  or  eighty  years  of 
mortal  life  have  failed  to  consummate  the 
imperative  task  ;  therefore  Atma,  through  its 
active  intermediate,  again  projects  its  con- 
sciousness downward,  reconstructing  on  each 
plane  of  matter  the  appropriate  human  principle 
or  body,  and,  at  last,  the  physical,  the  rind 
which  covers  all. 

Every  variety  of  material  body  in  the  hum- 
blest species,  is  the  almost  direct  creation  of 
the  universal,  undifferentiated  Atma,  and  nec- 
essarily so,  for  all  but  the  lowest  of  its  inter- 
vening principles  are  as  yet  incipient.  Benign 
intelligences,  vastly  superior  to  man,  have  in 
earlier  ages  guided  the  unfolding  of  these  lowly 

116 


MODERN    THEOSOPHY 

entities.  Now  man  himself,  because  of  his 
highly-developed  will,  is  throned  over  the 
inferior  life  of  this  planet.  Whether  for  good 
or  ill,  he  is  colouring  the  feeble  ray  of  mind  just 
visible  in  the  higher  animal  kingdom  ;  and  on 
him  will  rest  the  penalty  of  unbrotherliness  to 
these  creatures  destined  in  future  ages  to  arrive 
at  the  human  stage. 

This  conception  of  man's  authority  over 
Nature  is  more  vitally  and  sympathetically 
human  than  that  of  Schelling,  in  whose  Objec- 
tive Idealism  Nature  is  the  negative  pole  of  the 
human  mind  perceived  by  the  senses  as  some- 
thing external  to  that  mind.  Evidently  the 
laws  of  Nature  are  for  Schelling  those  which 
man  imposes  upon  it.  For  Hegel,  as  for  Scho- 
penhauer, Nature  is  a  realm  wherein  Reason 
wanders  from  the  goal  to  which  man  himself 
must  turn  her  feet. 

Reason  is  by  Hegel  identified  with  Infinite 
Substance,  Infinite  Form,  Infinite  Power. 
These,  beneath  all  objective  life,  manifest  as 
the  "  World  Spirit"  whose  striving  toward  free 
expression  results  in  Universal  History.  The 
unreason  of  Nature,  on  which  Hegel  and 
Schopenhauer  discant,  and  because  of  which 
Socrates  lamented,  obtains,  according  to  The- 
osophy,  in  appearance  chiefly  ;  but  a  larger, 
longer  survey  than  that  of  recorded  history  is 
necessary  to  the  full  confirmation  of  this  view. 

The  downfall  of  nations,  the  extinction  of 
civilizations,  are,  to  Theosophy,  no   backward 

117 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL  AND 

steps  of  attaining  Reason.  Such  seeming 
calamity  is  but  the  breaking  of  old  vessels  no 
longer  adequate  to  the  unfolding  Spirit.  For- 
ever the  antique  refashions  itself  as  the  new. 
Egypt,  Greece  and  Rome  no  doubt  return,  but 
not  in  pyramid  and  Sphinx,  not  in  Pantheon 
and  Acropolis,  not  in  palace  and  Forum,  not  in 
manners  and  customs  ;  no,  not  in  any  external- 
ities. Not  even  unto  their  own  land  do  the 
dead  peoples  return,  but  rather  they  come 
reembodying  afar  those  inner,  racial  character- 
istics once  the  mainspring  of  their  respective 
world  activities. 

Much  indeed  of  vice,  but  surely  more  of 
virtue,  is  reclothed  in  flesh  and  lives  the  vacil- 
lating human  life  of  Reason  and  unreason  ;  but 
looking  down  to  the  abyss  of  animalism  from 
whence  arose  our  race  ;  looking  at  its  upward 
trend  through  empires  founded  on  blood  and 
slaughter,  and  maintained  by  crime  ;  looking  at 
the  master  and  the  slave  of  tyrannizing  Rome, 
and  the  baron  and  the  serf  of  once  bedarkened 
Europe  long  abased  in  feudal  chains  ;  looking 
at  every  ignorance  and  malice  and  abuse  behind 
him,  who  will  not  rejoice  in  our  own  as  yet 
unperfected  day,  and  turn  with  serene  faith  to 
a  liberated  future? 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  system  of  Leibnitz 
a  preestablished  harmony  obtained  with  every 
grade  of  monads,  all  of  whom  are  evolving  to  a 
common  center.  From  this  it  is  evident  that 
having  once  for  all  established  the   harmony, 

118 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

God  enjoys  perpetual  Sabbath.  The  God  of 
Leibnitz  is,  in  fact,  very  like  the  God  of  Fichte's 
earlier  idealism,  a  mere  moral  order  in  the 
universe. 

In  the  Bhagavad-Gita  the  Supreme  Spirit 
says,  "There  is  nothing  in  the  universe  that  it 
is  necessary  for  me  to  perform,  nor  anything 
possible  to  obtain  that  I  have  not  obtained  ; 
yet  I  am  constantly  in  action.  If  I  were  not 
indefatigable  in  action  all  men  would  presently 
follow  my  example."  The  God  of  Theosophy 
is  this  Supreme  Spirit,  and  the  incessant  adjust- 
ment of  finite  action  by  Infinite  Reaction 
proceeds  from  the  activity  of  Absolute  Will. 

As  for  the  monads  of  Theosophy,  the  cause 
of  their  unfolding  is  expressed  by  the  words 
universal  brotherhood.  Every  monad  is  a 
center  of  will,  but,  as  no  two  wills  have  equally 
developed,  all  are  each  to  other  as  positive  and 
negative.  But  will  develops  evil-ward  or  good- 
ward  ;  therefore  every  monad  is  a  menace  or  an 
aid  to  its  weaker  neighbour.  Such  being  the 
case,  nothing  short  of  the  Divine  Reaction, 
whereby  evil  returns  to  the  evil-doer,  can  main- 
tain the  stability  of  the  world. 

All  progress  depends  on  mutual  help  ;  a  uni- 
versal lifting  up  of  that  which  is  lower.  If 
men  would  know  their  responsibilities,  let  them 
read  in  Genesis,  "And  God  said,  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness,  and  let 
them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over   the    fowl    of   the    air,  and    over   the 

119 


LEIBNITZ,   HEGEL   AND 

cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every 
creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth." 

Of  all  logicians,  Hegel  has  no  doubt  arrived 
at  the  clearest  and  closest  explanation  of  the 
great  problems  which  have  puzzled  the  meta- 
physicians. His  verdict  is  that  Philosophy  as 
such  does  not  reform  the  world. 

Theosophists  believe  that  a  clear  demonstra- 
tion of  the  mutual  dependence  of  universally 
unfolding  life  must  appeal  to  men,  if  only  to 
their  inherent  instinct  of  self-preservation. 
Those  who  profess  to  hold  in  custody  the  "An- 
cient Arcane  Wisdom,"  declare  that  a  suicidal 
selfishness,  similar  to  that  which  destroyed  vast 
and  forgotten  civilizations,  is  now  developing 
in  our  midst.  Moreover,  these  teachers  assert 
that  modern  investigation  is  nearing  the  dis- 
covery of  certain  laws  whose  misuse  by  the  men 
of  old  was  baneful  both  to  themselves  and  all 
associated  with  them. 

That  which  Theosophy  avows  as  its  mission 
is  not  the  elucidation  of  psychic  phenomena, 
nor  the  explanation  of  pre-natal  and  post- 
mortem states  ;  nor  is  it  the  announcing  of  the 
seven-foldness  of  man  and  nature ;  neither  is  it 
a  revelation  of  conditions  of  planetary  life 
within  the  solar  system.  Theosophy  has  for 
object  not  the  mere  history  of  submerged  con- 
tinents and  their  peoples  self-destroyed  through 
the  practice  of  infernal  arts.  Though  all  this 
and  more  are  professedly  its  province,  Theos- 
ophy undertakes,  as  its  prime  object,  to  prove 

120 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

that  brotherhood  in  its  widest  sense  is  a  neces- 
sary factor  in  the  world's  progress. 

In  these  few  pages  the  writer  would  make 
obvious  certain  similarities  in  Eastern  and 
Western  thought.  Anything  like  justice  to  the 
scope  of  Leibnitz,  Hegel  and  modern  Theoso- 
phy  would  result  in  a  sizable  volume.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  in  our  brief  exposition 
we  have  exhausted  similarities  ;  others  can  be 
shown,  for  example  :  Hegel  says  of  gravitation, 
that  it  is  the  desire  of  that  which  is  the  real  of 
matter  to  individualize  itself.  Already  it  would 
find  in  a  common  center  that  intelligent  one- 
ness for  which  the  Spirit  first  went  forth. 
Theosophy  sees  in  gravitation  the  principle  of 
Desire  urging  every  atom  of  the  sentient  uni- 
verse to  mutual  contact  in  an  instinctive  attempt 
to  overcome  the  illusion  of  separateness. 

This  desire  for  oneness,  manifest  in  the  wheel- 
ing of  suns  and  planets,  is,  to  Hegel,  as  also  to 
Theosophy,  the  ultimate  cause  of  those  mys- 
terious affinities  which  the  chemist  has  noted 
but  not  explained.  Belief  in  original  and  final 
unity  inspired  the  alchemists  in  their  exoteric 
search  for  what  to  Theosophy  is  the  gold  of 
transmuted  desire,  even  Divine  Love. 

In  certain  quarters,  men  of  distinguished 
attainment  have  overleaped  the  walls  where- 
with modern  physical  science  has  encompassed 
itself.  These  investigators  have  turned  to  those 
tabooed  subjects,  telepathy  and  spiritism,  of 
which    Theosophy   essays  a  detailed  explana- 

121 


MODERN   THEOSOPHY 

tion.  Such  investigation  is  a  hopeful  sign. 
Evidently  the  wave  of  materialism  is  expending 
itself  even  among  the  inheritors  of  the  ques- 
tionable legacy  of  John  Locke.  Less  and  less 
contempt  is  now  expressed  for  "  German  Tran- 
scendentalism "  and  the  so-called  wild  and 
extravagant  assumptions  of  Indian  thinkers. 
Though  the  gradual  substantiation  of  the  Dar- 
winian theory  is  working  adversely  toward  the 
doctrine  of  Swedenborg,  Theosophists  claim 
that  when  to  wireless  telegraphy,  and  the  unique 
behavior  of  Radium,  and  our  latest  knowledge 
of  the  atom  —  said  by  Theosophy  to  be,  like 
man,  a  miniature  of  the  solar  system  —  Science 
has  added  a  few  other  important  discoveries, 
men  will  look  with  amazement  at  the  half-reve- 
lation of  these  in  that  semi-esoteric  work  "The 
Secret  Doctrine"  of  H.  P.  Blavatsky. 

Although  such  thinkers  as  Hamilton  and  Mill 
have  deemed  the  knowledge  of  God  no  prov- 
ince of  philosophy,  and  though  Kant  himself 
considered  his  Being  a  matter  of  faith,  and 
though  Spencer  relegates  Deity  to  the  regions 
of  the  unknowable,  Leibnitz  made  the  Universal 
Monad  the  indispensable  primary  of  his  sys- 
tem, and  Hegel,  believed  that  he  himself  had 
reasoned  even  to  the  Absolute  One.  Theoso- 
phy, which,  like  Hegelianism,  declares  for  the 
perfectibility  and  unification  of  mankind,  stands 
also  for  "That,"  the  Divine  Parent,  the  All  in 
All  when  suns  and  systems,  and  time  itself,  shall 
be  no  more. 


Date  Due 

^ 

aV-H 

3 

f) 

BP955  .F23 

The  sophistries  of  Christian  science 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00038  4596 


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